Vicious Irony
by C.B. Magique
Summary: The power of the Phantom Ruby was not without its consequences. After the fall of the Eggman Empire, Infinite is left teetering on the edge of life with a frail heart and a wounded ego with no hope of recovery. Gadget goes against his fears to help his (former?) enemy on the road to recovery. [Avanite, Forces spoilers.]
1. Chapter 1

**I shouldn't be doing this but I had to get this story out of my head and off my chest because Forces came out and all the cute Avanite that imagined Gadget and Infinite as a pair who had known each other previously, probably romantically, have been sunk by the canon. I knew it would happen but I fell in love with the ship anyway. Even if I'm going down with this ship, I will not go down without a fight! That's basically what this story is about.**

 **Please send me reviews if you're as down for this as I am.**

* * *

Gadget wondered if he was going to regret joining the resistance for the rest of his life. Perhaps he just wished that he hadn't been so good at being the rookie. Maybe if he hadn't he wouldn't currently be speeding towards an active volcano with Silver the Hedgehog at Knuckles' behest. He looked down at the forest speeding by below him and immediately had to look away. Despite being wrapped in the cyan glow of Silver's powers there was no coloured tint to the surroundings, making him acutely aware that he was flying at the cruising speed of a jet engine with no outer protection and the thought made him want to spew. So he tried to take his mind off it by focussing on the smoking mountain ahead of them turning the sky black with its smoke and ash.

"We're almost there."

Gadget turned to Silver in surprise. Then in embarrassment with a little bit of fear. He hadn't gotten a full grasp of Silver and what he could do during the days of the resistance, other than that the white hedgehog was psychic to some degree. The telekinesis was pretty obvious, but could he read minds too?

"You're looking a little green," Silver said with a grin. "I'll set us down the first chance I get, okay?"

Gadget gulped but it didn't help the nausea. At least Silver wasn't actually a mind reader.

"Don't worry so much, you'll be fine. You'll probably do great," Silver tried to encourage him, seeing as he wasn't talking. "Remember, you teamed up with Sonic and took down Dr Eggman. This mission isn't anywhere near as challenging as that. We're just disabling one of the Doctor's bases of operations to make sure he doesn't get to make a spectacular comeback anytime soon. And we'll meet Rouge inside. She'll have all the info we need to know, if we need to know anything. I mean, how much intel does it take to smash stuff? Am I right?"

Land first, then talk, Gadget wanted to say but feared that if he did all of his hard work so far to not get vomit all over himself would be ruined. Silver chuckled awkwardly and looked forwards. The volcano got closer and closer until they were beginning to see the blocky outlines of buildings on the lower slopes. Then suddenly there was a loud boom and a puff of smoke rose from the bottommost building.

"What?" Silver exclaimed. "Someone's already here? Rouge wouldn't start the fireworks without us, she's too disciplined. We should check it out."

Suddenly they were flying faster, somehow. Gadget closed his eyes and continued to wonder how he got roped back into these shenanigans. When they made it to the base of the mountain Silver landed them on the ground in front of the lab carefully and yet Gadget still had trouble finding his feet. As soon as he got steady, he doubled over and threw up. Not the best impression he could pull in front of an evil mad scientist's lair, especially after an admittedly epic victory against said mad scientist. He wobbled over to Silver's side and steadied himself against his shoulder.

"Please tell me Rouge has a plane or something," he finally spoke up.

Silver didn't respond, which got Gadget a bit more attentive. He looked at his fellow rebel, seeing his eyes flash and his hands still glowing even though they weren't flying any more. Apprehensively, Gadget turned his gaze to the entrance of the lab where Silver's anger was directed. The entranceway was littered with destroyed robots and the large reinforced metal doors were pocked with dents, scorches and bullet marks. Gadget thought he had to clean his glasses when he saw the silver-backed black jackal with the cannon arm of a robot that he'd been trying to use as a bazooka to knock down the doors.

"It's Infinite," Silver hissed.

Gadget was almost afraid. Almost because even though Infinite had been formidable something wasn't quite right about him now. He and the two Sonics had destroyed the Phantom Ruby, leaving Infinite without his reality-bending powers but it was more than that. The cannon fell out of his arms. His knees were bent and wobbling like he was struggling just to stand and his fur had the distinct shine of sweat. Gadget could see his sides expanding and shrinking with deep, laboured breaths. It looked to him like Infinite was sick.

A low growl came from the black jackal that rose until it became a roar. Gadget winced at the sound, at all the rage, frustration, and pain in that primal noise.

"Eggman! Show yourself," Infinite bellowed. "You knew about this, didn't you? You must have! I'll kill you, you lying bastard! Mark my words, next time I see you, you're dead!"

He choked at the end of the last sentence and then his knees knocked together, unable to continue the effort of holding up his body. Silver and Gadget gasped. They rushed to his side and while Silver just stared at the poor guy passed out face down on the ground Gadget dropped to his knees and put his hands gently on Infinite's ribs. He was still breathing but his lungs were pulling hard.

"Something's wrong," Gadget said. He looked up at Silver with imploringly wide eyes. "We need to help him."

Silver kept staring at Infinite like he didn't know what to do. "I... we can't... we're too far out..." he stammered.

"But you can fly! Fly him back to Central City and I'll clear this place out by myself."

"What? Really?"

"Yeah. I mean, I went into the Death Egg all by myself so... piece of cake, right?" Gadget said, not sounding as confident as his words made him out to be.

Silver glanced at him. "Sure thing." He opened his palm towards Infinite, wrapping the jackal up in his cyan powers. "I'll trust you to go on ahead. Make sure you fill Rouge in on what's going on."

He took to the air, towing Infinite behind him. Gadget watched them leave worriedly. Infinite had been a formidable enemy, so much so that even without the ruby Gadget couldn't imagine that anything would be able to take him down easily. And the source of his downfall apparently came from Dr Eggman. Gadget turned to the doors, now even more unsure about his impulsive decision than before but he couldn't back away now. Problem was, how was he going to get past these doors?

* * *

The first thing Infinite saw when he began to wake up was white. Just white, like one of those subconscious or purgatory scenes from the movies. He hoped he wasn't dead yet, otherwise Dr Eggman was getting off free and there was no way he would stand for that. As his brain regained its conscious functions his vision gradually got sharper and he started to see more detail in his surroundings, such as the ceiling tiles with fluorescent lights regularly spaced between them. He could feel his body again and everything attached to it—something pinched over his left index finger, a tube on his face blowing air directly up his nostrils, a blanket over his lower half that kept his legs warm but left his torso feeling frigid from a too-cold AC. So he was in hospital. He was alive so he needed to get up and get to Dr Eggman before someone else (like G.U.N.) got to him first and stole his thunder but his body fought back against any attempt to move. His limbs felt sluggish and heavy. All of his joints groaned their protest against him moving them and his mental faculties weren't fully recovered yet. He'd held up his hands and stared at them for three minutes before realising that they were his own ungloved hands, the ones that were attached to his arms that were attached to his body and with a pulse oximeter clipped to his finger. He turned his head from left to right. He was in a ward of some sort but the curtains were closed around his bed for total privacy. Every now and then he heard low voices and footsteps or the rattle of trolley wheels beyond the green veil.

There didn't seem to be anything worth seeing in his sectioned-off piece of the hospital but then his eyes fell upon the bed table on his right. A pair of glasses sat there innocuously, horn-rimmed with thick lenses. The way they were positioned gave him the sense that he was being stared at. He glared back at them.

"What are you staring at?" he growled in painkiller-induced madness.

He reached over to the table, fumbling around them a few times before he got a hold of the frames. He looked at them for a while, unable to recall why he was trying to get at them in the first place. Then he unfolded the arms and put them on his face. Immediately everything that had once been clear became blurry and indistinct. So the glasses didn't belong to him but he couldn't for the life of him work out who he knew with glasses like these who would come to visit him in hospital.

"Was... was that you talking?" a meek voice asked.

Infinite looked over the side of his bed. A red, amorphous shape rose up over the edge of it, growing taller and taller until it loomed over him. He punched it in that little black dot that he assumed was the middle of its face. It immediately retreated back beneath the bed.

"Ow! You didn't need to do that! I'm your friend, I swear!"

"You're a monster," Infinite slurred. His tongue was moving too slowly for his liking.

"No I'm not. You're just wearing my glasses."

The red monster resurfaced. It reached for him with tentacle-like appendages tipped in olive green barbs. Infinite tried to lean away from it and grab its tentacles but he was too heavy and his body too weak and sore. Sore was new, actually. It was beginning in the middle of his chest and radiated pain like a fire. The red monster easily overpowered him, held him down and pinned his arms to the bed.

"Stop moving. You're still recovering from surgery."

The world slid back into focus as the frames were pulled away from his face and the red monster became a red wolf leaning over him. The red wolf put the glasses on his own face and gazed at him with a forced expression. His smile said 'I'm glad to be here' but his eyes said 'I would rather be somewhere else'.

Infinite squinted at him. The pain in his chest was growing stronger. "Who are you?"

The red wolf chuckled nervously. "Don't remember me anymore, huh?"

Infinite tried to think, tried to get a handle on who this guy was that he was supposed to remember. He recalled fire and smoke from their first meeting. A warping noise. A white room with a window filled with robots. Two blue hedgehogs. He pushed the wolf away.

"You! You pathetic—rgh!" he growled. His hand went to his chest, trying to put pressure on the pain but that only made it worse. A rough and slightly sticky cloth bound his chest tightly. He looked down. The area where he'd put his hand had been shaved and a green bandage had been wrapped around his chest to keep the pad underneath in place.

Gadget watched him staring at the bandage in shock and swallowed anxiously. "You just had emergency heart surgery."

The way Infinite glanced at him felt as bad as a bite. "What's that got to do with you?"

Gadget flinched. "Er, the hospital needed someone to be a contact to share updates and information with. Me and Silver nominated ourselves to do that."

"Silver... that white one," Infinite muttered, wracking his mind. He glared hard at Gadget. "The two of you have no business poking your snouts into my life! You should have just left!"

"I'm sorry! We thought it was the right thing to do," Gadget explained, swallowing again. His throat was going dry quickly trying to think of a way to get this out gently. He couldn't face Infinite while he did this. "We found you outside one of Eggman's bases and brought you here because you seemed sick. Um... it's kind of hard but I was told to tell you this: your heart..."

"I know."

Gadget turned to him, shocked. "You know?"

"My heart is frail. The walls of my veins and arteries have thinned out. My immune system is weaker. And it's all Dr Eggman's fault." Infinite grasped the sheets so hard his nails tore through them. He snarled at nothing in particular. "No wonder he wouldn't just use it on himself."

"Use it...?"

"The ruby. He must have known that there was a fatal drawback to harnessing its power in an organic body so he used me as a lab rat and lied to me about the consequences." He glared at Gadget. "You and your cuddly forest friends in the resistance had no right to find out."

Gadget didn't have anything to say to that. Partly because Infinite was right. They didn't really have the right to butt in beyond delivering him to the ER. And partly because it was difficult to digest the situation at hand. Every time he saw Infinite during their war against Dr Eggman he'd never once thought that he was paying a price for unlimited power; that Infinite was just one with the ruby and not that they were both separate tools that the mad doctor had to force to work in tandem with one operating at a far higher capacity than the other. It was hard to think about, so much that he wanted to avoid thinking about it. The being of infinite power was sitting before him in a hospital, frail, sick, and vulnerable.


	2. Chapter 2

**I'm really happy about the positive reception this story has gotten so far, especially because this is something I intend to continue. All the reviews are really encouraging. Thank-you! And t** **ake a seat guys because it gets sadder before it gets happier.**

* * *

The silence between them stretched out long and awkwardly. Infinite righted himself on the bed and resumed staring at the ceiling, very deliberately ignoring Gadget. The red wolf fidgeted, alternating between rubbing at his elbow and twiddling his fingers. He thought about leaving, in fact he thought it was probably the smart thing to do right about now. He had done the righteous duty of convincing Silver to bring Infinite to hospital and save his life, he told the doctor he would stay the night and give Infinite a summary of how the surgery went, he even slept on the floor on a blanket like a dog just to make sure Infinite's life had actually been saved. He had done everything required of him and then some. So he could leave now, yes?

 _No._

Even though his brain kept consciously repeating 'yes, yes, yes' the subconscious part kept saying 'no'. His legs were shaking, torn between his mind telling them to leave and to stay at the same time.

"If you're that scared of me, just go," Infinite said, startling Gadget out of his thoughts.

"Sc-scared? I'm not…"

"You're shaking in your boots."

The jackal pointed to his knees with his eyes. Gadget looked down and his cheeks went almost as red as his fur when he realised that his knees were nearly knocking together. He grabbed his kneecaps, trying to keep them still.

"I'm not scared of you!" he protested forcefully. Well, he kind of was but he wouldn't let Infinite know that. "Who'd be scared of someone in a hospital bed?"

As soon as it came out Gadget immediately regretted it (whether he regretted it more than joining the resistance would be determined by whether he died today or not). Infinite clenched his teeth and his lip curled. But he didn't say anything.

"Sorry," Gadget mumbled, standing up straight. "I'll just... I'll tell them you're awake."

Finally his legs agreed to turn and take him out of there. He ran down the hall to the nurses' station, ignoring a passing nurse snapping at him to walk. His body itched all over with adrenalin but alas the nurses' station wasn't far enough and he was there too soon to really clear his whirling thoughts.

A deer nurse behind the desk was speaking to a human woman with long black hair dressed in scrubs, exchanging notes and updates on the veterinary doctor's clipboard. She had to bend down low to reach the desk since it had been built with the much shorter anthropomorphs in mind. There were quite a few more humans around in anthro dominated areas in the wake of Eggman's invasion and vice versa. Everyone was spreading out to help repair and rebuild the world in any way they could and Gadget was glad to see so many people cooperating with each other. It was sorely needed. Gadget approached the desk with the intention of waiting since the medical professionals were clearly quite busy but his red fur must have really stood out because the vet turned to him as soon as he got close.

"Hey, red wolf," she said to him. He blinked but then opened his mouth in a little 'o' when he realised who he was talking to. This was the same vet who'd treated Infinite the day before. Her name badge read: Dr Simone Hai. She'd asked if they were friends and he'd fibbed a little bit and that got him his stint as the designated bearer of bad news. "I'm about to do the rounds on my patients. How's your friend?"

"He's awake," Gadget reported, "but he's kinda grumpy."

She blew out a frustrated puff of air. "He must be a stubborn one. Most patients are too woozy from the drugs to get tetchy straight away."

Gadget chuckled nervously. "He's a lot hardier than most people."

"Apparently. You can let him know that I'll be there soon."

Suddenly an alarm on the nurse's desk began to beep. The deer glanced at one of the screens of her computer. "Doctor, it's your patient in bed 13. His oximeter readings have dropped to zero."

Gadget's heart pounded in his ears. 13 was Infinite's bed—he'd seen the number on the file holder. But he'd seemed fine when the wolf left.

"He just got his priority bumped up," Simone muttered, taking her clipboard and files and hurrying at a brisk walk down the corridor to the coronary care ward.

Gadget trotted just behind her, worrying about where he could have possibly gone wrong. Did Infinite have a heart attack in the short time that he was away? Should he have stayed behind and simply pressed the nurse call button? As they entered coronary care two more nurses (a cat and a bear) hurried in, summoned by the same alarm. Simone threw back the curtain hiding Infinite's bed. Gadget peeked around her, a little bit afraid of what they'd find.

Infinite stood beside the bed, too woozy to stand up without holding the bed for balance and trying to pull his oxygen cannula over his large ears. The nurses charged him immediately. The bear lifted him right off his feet and wrestled him back onto the bed while the cat put all of the wires back. Infinite struggled against the bear's iron grip on his arms, kicking and snarling.

"Let me go!"

Gadget sighed in relief. "Thank goodness, you were only trying to do a runner."

"Doing a runner is nothing to be casual about," Simone said, giving him a stern look. "He's still in a fragile condition."

"It's a lot better than what I thought was happening," he mumbled.

Simone stared at him for a couple of beats with an unreadable expression. Suddenly she smiled and patted him on the head. "You're such a sweet friend."

She walked over to the bed without taking in the offended frown on Gadget's face. He wasn't a pet, one couldn't just pat him on the head whenever they wanted.

"Mr Jackal," she said, putting her clipboard down on his bed table. Gadget snickered upon hearing the vet call Infinite such an ordinary name. It was the name Silver apparently gave when he dropped him off, seeing as nobody in the resistance was sure that 'Infinite' was actually his real name and identifying him as a world-dominating criminal probably wasn't wise. "How are you feeling?"

"Go to hell!"

Simone just hummed in response, looking over him with critical eyes before lifting up her clipboard, turning to a particular file and writing something with the pen she'd had clipped in with the paper. "One a scale of one to ten, how much pain are you feeling?"

"Shut up! I don't need your help!"

She just nodded. "What if I touch you here?" she asked, poking him in the middle of his chest over the bandage. He yelped. Simone noted that.

"Leave me alone!"

Gadget looked on in awe as Simone continued to ignore him. The bear nurse seemed to have Infinite under control so she asked the cat to go and fetch a medicine with a name that Gadget would never be able to remember after hearing it once. While the cat did that, Simone took the chair tucked away against the wall and sat down beside the bed.

"Mr Jackal, I'm sure your friend was able to fill you in on the really crucial things but there are a few things I need to inform you about since you were unconscious when you came in."

Gadget's eyes moved shiftily and he bit his lip. She didn't need to know that he wasn't all that successful at getting through to Infinite.

"I also need to confirm some things with you. First of all, a concerned citizen brought you into ER sixteen hours ago. You were suffering from arrhythmia and faulty valves from an unknown heart condition and a tear in your inferior vena cava. We had to perform emergency surgery to repair your heart and stabilise your condition. It was an open heart surgery so the recovery time is going to be extensive and you'll be required to remain here as an inpatient for up to seven days or so."

"Well that's fucking peachy," Infinite growled but he'd gone still. It appeared from the rapid rise and fall of his chest that he was already out of breath.

"We investigated your medical history as best we could and found that a jackal matching your description, also without ID, had undergone another procedure at a different hospital for a suspected heart attack although there was no evidence of the usual cause for a heart attack. Can you confirm that that was you?"

Infinite stayed silent. Gadget stared at him, also wondering if it was true. It would explain how Infinite had already known about the problems he was suffering. It's not like Dr Eggman would have told him during his employ—that would've been suicide for the mad scientist.

"Could you at least give me a name, address, phone number, or any other kind of ID?" Simone asked.

Again, Infinite maintained silence. Simone sighed disappointedly. Instead of pursuing further questioning she took down the results showing on the oximeter. As she was doing that the cat nurse returned with a small bottle of clear liquid and a needle and syringe individually wrapped in plastic. Infinite's eyes followed the nurse setting the items down and going through drawers beside his bed for a cotton ball, a bandage, small electric shaver and an alcohol swab.

"Don't you dare touch me with that!" Infinite threatened but the nurse was well aware that there was nothing he could do in his condition and shaved a small square off his arm anyway.

"What exactly is that?" Gadget asked, watching the nurse fill the syringe with the mystery liquid.

"It's the medicine I asked for earlier," Simone replied, then spoke to Infinite. "It'll help with the pain and allow you to get some sleep."

"I don't need it!" he shouted, trying to struggle away but it was no use. The cat nurse gripped his arm tightly and delivered the injection. It only took a few seconds and it started to work rapidly while the nurse bandaged the cotton ball over the puncture. Infinite's eyes became unfocussed and his movements got jerkier and more random. "Leave me..." he slurred. "I'm... fine..."

The bear sensed that it was okay to let him go and did so. He immediately tried to roll out of bed but was disoriented to such a degree that he only got a little way onto his side before falling onto his back again. The nurses put the bed rails up to stop him from rolling out of bed by accident.

"Is he going to be okay?" Gadget asked.

"He's fine," Simone answered. "This is what the medicine is supposed to do." She faced him to show a reassuring smile and caught the expectant look on his face. "Oh, you meant long term, didn't you? That'll depend on how he cooperates during his recovery and how well he adheres to his healthcare instructions once he's discharged. It may be a bit much to ask you since you're not a relative but could you take care of him while he's healing?"

Gadget's eyes widened in uncertainty. Him, a member of the resistance, caring for Infinite during his time of ill health? That would take some explaining to the others.

"It's not doctor's orders or anything, you can say no. It's just that you've been so willing and supportive so far—you seem to care about him a lot—and I'm getting the vibe that he's not going to give himself the due care he needs to recover to his maximum potential. Plus, it's helpful for there to be at least one other person who has the details on his medical requirements in case of future emergencies."

The colour of Gadget's ears darkened a hue at the insinuation that he cared for Infinite. He had come all this way and spent hours by his bedside in the hospital, his brain reminded him. Gadget chased out that embarrassing thought to latch onto something Simone had mentioned.

"You said 'maximum potential'. Is that another way of saying fully recovered? As in, back to normal."

Simone frowned sadly. "The current prognosis is that a full recovery is unlikely."

Gadget's ears and tail drooped. He caught the drift in her tone that 'unlikely' actually meant 'impossible'. The consequences Infinite had to suffer were like a battle, one that wouldn't end in victory but could very well end in defeat. A small part of him that was still bitter and scared over the war said Infinite deserved this. No conventional punishment like a prison was going to be good enough to make him _pay for_ ( _understand_ , he forced himself to think) all the pain he inflicted on the world. However, the bigger part of him pointed out that no one should be left to fight alone. Wasn't that what his last four months were all about?

Decision made, Gadget went to the side of Infinite's bed opposite to Simone, the side where the oximeter was placed. Infinite looked like he was about to fall asleep any second now. He shook his head from one side to the other, trying to fight the sedative. His head turned left and his eyes caught Gadget's gaze by accident. He stopped thrashing and glared at him. At least Gadget thought it was a glare (he looked so sleepy it was hard to tell) with the only hard evidence he could point to being the mad twitching of his eyebrows trying to make an expression but being too tired to muster it. Other than that he only had a vague sense that Infinite was over boiling with anger that had no proper direction or outlet. Gadget slipped his left hand into Infinite's. The jackal squeezed briefly but let go out of weakness. His thumb barely fluttered over the back of Gadget's hand, feeling like a caress rather than anything violent. And maybe this was naive but he took it as a sign that Infinite wasn't angry with him; he wasn't truly interested in hurting him anymore. The pause in motion made Infinite even drowsier. He tried to blink to stay conscious but he only managed two. After that his eyes stayed shut and his face relaxed. Only the oximeter readings gave any indication that he was still alive.

"I'll do it."


	3. Chapter 3

**I'm so happy that this is going well so far for you readers. Idling ISL mentioned a heart transplant, and while that wasn't what actually happened last chapter it gives me an idea for the future. And now for a little less Infinite and a little more Everyone Else.**

* * *

For the next six days Gadget felt like he was living a secret double life. Resistance member by day, fraternising with the enemy by night. Well, that wasn't literally the case, sometimes situations came up where he was required with the resistance at night and he would sometimes spend time with Infinite during the day but it was the principle. He hadn't told anyone that he'd nominated himself to look after Infinite but he nervously wondered about what would happen if (when) the others found out. They were already none too pleased to find out that Infinite wasn't dead or hadn't somehow sucked himself into his own void upon being defeated. It was a harsh thing to wish on someone but there was a lingering atmosphere of apprehension about dealing with a villain who had been so daunting to defeat.

That's why Knuckles had demanded the core resistance members have a meeting at HQ to figure out what to do with him. Gadget walked through the doors of the secret bunker feeling the same way he had when he'd arrived the first time as a rookie. It had such a large door and a high ceiling that made him feel small. He was apparently the last one there because once inside it was already full of familiar faces gathered around the main console with grim appearances. Gadget thought they all seemed exhausted as well. Taking on Infinite had been an overwhelming ordeal and the aftermath phase was intensive; naturally no one wanted to risk having to face him again.

"Good, everyone's here," Knuckles said, effectively beginning the meeting. "I shouldn't need to tell you all by now but just so we're clear on what we're talking about: Silver, Gadget, and Rouge came back from a mission with a report that Infinite is still alive and kicking."

"Actually, he wasn't kicking that much," Silver interjected, "he was more kinda... fainting."

"At the time," Rouge added with a tone of warning.

"Do you think there's a chance he could get his old powers back?" Amy asked.

"He didn't have the ruby," Silver replied.

"But that doesn't mean he doesn't have any other means," Vector pointed out. "That guy is a menace! He could be plotting another way to take over the world."

"Those are Dr Eggman's priorities," Tails said with a shake of his head.

"Infinite was helping with those priorities. He must get some kind of kick out of it. A way more sick and twisted kick, if you ask me."

"I still don't agree that Infinite is necessarily motivated to take over the world but you're right about one thing. Infinite is motivated to do evil for some reason."

"He's a chaotic element in the restoration efforts," Espio said, "especially when he's still so mysterious to us after all this time. We need to contain him in some way so we can keep an eye on him without exposing the world to further danger by his hands."

"That's what I was hoping to hear," Knuckles said. "Solutions. Arguing about what we do and don't know won't get us anywhere. Besides, I've already got a plan in action to deal with the information issue."

"Really? What is it?" Charmy gushed, way too excited about something so serious. As usual.

"We know where Silver left him so I've got an operative on the inside to keep tabs on him and get as much intel as possible. But that's all I can say. The details of the plan are on a need to know basis."

Gadget's blood went cold with dread. Knuckles didn't think that was him, did he? Then again, it wasn't Knuckles' style to put someone in a position they didn't know about. However, that only gave him cause to be concerned that there was someone inside the hospital feeding information to the resistance. Did they know about his regular visits?

"Rouge is spying on him?" Charmy guessed. "That's a really good idea."

"I didn't say it was Rouge!"

"It is obviously Rouge," Omega said. "Among you she has superior intelligence gathering skills and intelligence generally."

Rouge snickered while Knuckles roared at the robot in offence. "I'm the leader here! That requires a lot of intelligence!"

"Self-appointed titles do not grant you the traits that you lack."

Knuckles charged at him, spewing threats but Silver held him back with his powers.

"Stop it, Knuckles!" Amy entreated. "Having personal squabbles isn't going to solve anything. Espio mentioned containing him, so let's go with that. What's the best way to go about it?"

"We don't really have the resources to keep someone locked up ourselves," Tails said, "especially if they're potentially powered."

"Why don't we just hand him over to G.U.N.?" Vector suggested.

"G.U.N. was pretty badly taken down during Eggman's takeover," Rouge told them. "As far as I can tell it's been working in factions but even I don't know what their status is."

"So handing them a powered prisoner to 'contain' would just cause factional conflict," Tails concluded.

"Oh, I'm sure there'll still be factional conflict. Having Infinite in the mix will just make it worse."

"He can't be that bad without the Phantom Ruby," Silver argued. "We could just set up a cage here and put him in it."

"Like a pet dog?" Amy spat in disgust. "I know he tried to take over the world, but he's still a person. That's undignifying!"

"A guy like him doesn't deserve dignity!" Vector shouted.

"We shouldn't approach this from a position of vengeance," Espio said sensibly.

"He's right," Rouge nodded. "If we do that it'll just make him want to retaliate."

"We could commandeer the facilities in the Eggman bases we're clearing out," Charmy suggested.

"Yeah," Tails agreed eagerly. "That's a great idea! Dr Eggman must have a bunch of pris—uh, _containment_ facilities within his bases designed to hold So—er, people with superpowers who annoy him a lot. We could salvage parts and tech to build a cell for Infinite that we could use to monitor him without fearing that he may have a trick to regain his powers and bust out of it."

"How do we know Eggman hasn't left any tricks or traps in his stuff?" Amy asked.

"Destruction is the only certain method of removing the threat of Infinite," Omega said. "I propose immediate elimination."

"That option isn't on the table!" Knuckles yelled at him.

"It should be."

Gadget looked back and forth as the previously quiet room became a cacophony of voices angrily arguing and shouting over the top of each other. Different suggestions jockeyed for consideration but barely made progress as each had their supporters and dissenters. Despite declaring himself leader, Knuckles had already lost control and him shouting for everyone to shut up wasn't doing any good. Gadget couldn't keep up with the discussion anymore. He was having a hard time working out who was saying what when as his gaze darted from face to face.

"Dump him on Prison Island," Shadow piped up brusquely.

The room quietened abruptly. They all turned to the black hedgehog leaning against a wall away from the main group with his arms folded and a surly expression.

"You want to put him in your old cell?" Rouge questioned. Gadget's ears pricked upon hearing that. Shadow had been to prison? He didn't know much about Shadow but the more he learned the more terrifying the black hedgehog became.

"If G.U.N. is as fractured as you say it is they've likely abandoned Prison Island too," he justified. "Security is mostly automated and nearly impenetrable and it's impossible for the prisoner to escape without outside help. He won't even feel the years going by."

"You're suggesting we imprison him indefinitely," Knuckles realised.

"Out of sight, out of mind," Shadow shrugged. "It renders this entire argument redundant."

"It's not fair to do that to someone without a trial at least," Amy protested.

"It would be an open-shut case," Rouge countered.

Knuckles hummed, deep in thought. "This could work."

"You can't be serious!" Amy cried.

"Hear me out!" he snapped at her. "Infinite is making our job harder while we repair the world. We don't need to lock him up for life yet, we just need him out of the way while the world gets back on its feet. Then we can come back for him and go through all the fair processes properly."

"Hmph," Shadow scoffed. "You tell yourself that." He lifted himself off the wall and sauntered to the exit.

"Where are you going?!"

Shadow turned to Knuckles. "We have a solution. The meeting is over, so I'm leaving."

Gadget stumbled out of his way, realising that Shadow wasn't going to stop or walk around him. They all stared in stunned silence as the doors opened and then closed behind him.

"That arrogant...!" Amy fumed, balling her fists.

"This is far from over!" Vector yelled. Even if Shadow could hear him, he likely didn't care.

"Maybe Shadow has the right idea," Silver interjected. "We came up with a lot of ideas, maybe we just need to sleep on them before the best idea becomes apparent."

Knuckles growled. "As much as I don't want to give that jerk the satisfaction, Silver might be on to something. We were all just fighting for the most part. So, this meeting is over. Try to get a good rest tonight."

Discontented rumblings murmured throughout the group but they respected Knuckles' leadership regardless. They all began to vacate the room, with the Chaotix being the first to go. They were really busy right now; Gadget recalled there were a ton of people calling their detective agency and asking them to take cases on lost friends and family. Omega marched out after them followed by Rouge. As they passed him, Rouge shot him a knowing glance and a smirk. The red wolf paled. She knew. Oh, she definitely knew. Knuckles and Silver left with Amy a couple of feet behind them. She paused at the doorway to look back into the room. Gadget followed her gaze.

The other hedgehog in the room hadn't spoken once during the entire meeting. Even now that it was officially adjourned he remained where he had been leaning against the wall at the opposite end of the room to Shadow, legs and arms crossed and a troubled expression on his face. Tails approached him carefully. He reached out as if he was going to touch the blue hedgehog but then seemed to think better of it.

"Sonic..." he asked quietly, "are you okay?"

Sonic looked up. His expression wiped away immediately, replaced by a bright grin. "Yeah, why wouldn't I be? Need something, little buddy?"

Tails' ears drooped. "No... you just seemed upset. I tried to be sensitive but..."

"That's sweet, Tails," Sonic said, ruffling the fluffy hair between his ears, "but you don't have to worry about me. Eggbutt taking over most of the world didn't keep us from defeating him, so I'm over it."

Tails didn't reply but he looked down at their feet. "If you say so."

"I do. C'mon, let's go see if Chilli Dog Dane has his cart up and running again." He patted Tails on the back and began to walk out, looking back briefly to make sure Tails was following. Gadget was still standing near the door as they passed. Sonic gave him that megawatt grin. "Hey, Rookie! Wanna get chilli dogs with us?

Gadget hesitated to respond because he wasn't immediately sure if he wanted to or not. Before he could form an answer, a cute tune beeped out of his headset, the one he still wore as his main communication device since he had thus far been unable to locate his phone after the war. He gave the pair an apologetic smile and turned away to answer the call.

"Hi, this is Gadget... Really? That's great!... This afternoon? You want me to come?... No, no! I'll come... Yeah, see you then."

The caller hung up on the other side. Gadget turned back to his original direction, surprised to find Sonic and Tails waiting for him to finish. Sonic raised an eyebrow.

"Who was that?"

Gadget's heart skipped a beat. He got that cold feeling again, the one that caused him to sweat. "It was, uh... a person calling..."

"Yeah, obviously," Sonic said impatiently. "What about?"

"About? It was about, uh... my... hot... water!" Gadget exclaimed.

"Hot water?" Tails asked.

"Yes, my hot water!" Gadget confirmed. "It was broken, because of the war. The person calling is... er, they're going to fix it. This afternoon. I have to be there to let them into my apartment."

"So they're a plumber," Sonic said. His eyes narrowed a little and his grin turned into a smirk, like he was suspicious but amused about it.

"Yes," Gadget lied. "They're a plumber."

Tails narrowed his eyes too but he was frowning. "Do you think we're dumb? You're a terrible liar."

Gadget stammered. Getting caught out by a little kid was more than a little bit humiliating. But he was proud of his story, he needed to keep it up. However, before he could think up an excuse for his defence, Sonic interjected:

"Come on, Tails, give him the benefit of the doubt, would ya? Having cold showers all week must have been awful. He's just stuttering 'cause he's excited about it. Am I readin' you right, Rookie?"

Sonic looked at him, still wearing that suspicious-amused expression that had Gadget unsettled. He nodded.

"In that case, I'm happy for you," Sonic added. "Now, back to the real important question: chilli dog or no?"

Maybe it was because he thought seeming game would soften their suspicion. He had no opinion on chilli dogs whatsoever and wasn't particularly hungry but he nodded nonetheless. Sonic cheered his decision and grabbed him by the arm to drag him out of the base, nattering on about how Dane the Dog's chilli dogs were absolutely the best. The entire time, Tails glared at Gadget, unable to let his suspicion go when their newest friend was apparently hiding something from them.


	4. Chapter 4

**Phew, sorry! I didn't meet my goal of getting this chapter up by Friday. I got sidetracked with birthday and Christmas stuff but I've finished it over the weekend and here you go. A new chapter in which Infinite tries to go full edgelord and fails miserably.**

* * *

Gadget ditched Sonic and Tails easily with the excuse that he had to be home to meet the plumber. Tails still wasn't buying it and let him know with his eyes. Sonic probably wasn't buying it but waved him goodbye and told him to enjoy his restored hot water. They didn't follow him when he took off via grappling gun, which was just as well because instead of going home he headed to the hospital. He went straight up to the coronary care ward, a route that he had committed to memory by now so it was almost sad to know that he might never come up this way again. After signing in he took his visitor tag and went straight to Infinite's bed, hoping the jackal would be in it today and not planning some form of escape. He stepped into the ward and if he had been less attentive he might have bumped straight into the person trying to exit. Gadget and Infinite stared at each other, one with a dropped jaw, the other looking a bit disoriented.

"Uh, is this part of being discharged?" Gadget asked. "Are we going somewhere?"

Infinite growled. "No. You're leaving. And I'm leaving. But we're leaving differently."

"I think you need to sit down," Gadget said, pushing Infinite back to bed gently. By now it didn't surprise him that the jackal stumbled back easily.

"No. They told me I could leave, so I'm going," Infinite argued, grabbing Gadget's wrists. His grip was weaker than ever before. After a week in bed with painkillers and other meds pumping around his systems Infinite had no strength left to put up a resistance and Gadget easily led him back to his bed and pushed him to sit on it.

"You and I both know that you wouldn't make it down the street in your condition," Gadget told him calmly. "Just sit here and wait for the doctor."

"Need I remind you again that you have no right to be here," Infinite said bitterly. "Not that it matters evidently, you and your resistance forest friends seem content to do whatever you please with me."

Gadget gulped. He had to remind himself that Infinite was just high and didn't actually know about the conversation that happened earlier that day. "I'm not gonna let them do that," he mumbled.

Infinite's ears twitched. They were so large Gadget was certain there was no way he didn't hear that but he didn't reply immediately. He just stared at the red wolf through two mismatched eyes, one scarred and less vibrant than the other. Gadget really wanted to ask what happened to it but knew their relationship hadn't broached that boundary yet.

"Why don't you listen to me?" Infinite finally asked. Gadget's eyebrows rose, not expecting a question phrased like that.

"I do! It's just… what you're saying right now isn't sensible," Gadget replied.

Infinite stared some more, looking as though he didn't quite understand the answer. But he left it too long and didn't get the chance to reply because the vet walked in with a peppy greeting that took both of their attentions. She looked from one to the other, very pleased with the circumstance.

"I'm glad you haven't left," Simone said, talking mainly to Infinite, "because there's a bit of ground we need to cover before you're officially discharged regarding management of your recovery. Thank-you for coming, Mr. Gadget, you can take a seat if you like."

She set a cardboard binder down on the bed table, revealing that she'd been carrying an armful of items that, as far as Gadget could tell, were mostly comprised of an intimidating amount of medicine boxes. Gadget pulled the bedside chair out to sit down, staying deliberately close to Infinite. In case he bolts, he told himself. Simone wiggled the binder out from under the boxes and opened it up before beginning her explanation:

"So, despite a low level of cooperation over the past few days, you have healed remarkably well following your surgery. I'm a little baffled but nonetheless my professional opinion is that you are fit to continue your treatment at home. However, there are quite a few instructions I need you to follow since the nature of your surgery involves a very long healing process and your specific condition is a bit complicated. First off, you'll probably be in quite a lot of pain in the coming weeks so I've prescribed some oral pain medication." She lifted one of the boxes, showing Gadget and Infinite the brand name and the sticker with her instructions. "It's technically optional but you'll probably want it. You can take 1 to 2 every 4 to 6 hours and no more than 6 pills in a 24 hour period. I also recommend you purchase a sternum support device at the pharmacy on the ground floor.

"The next medication is unfortunately compulsory. The tear in your vena cava couldn't be fixed surgically nor did it need to be but while it heals you'll have to take this injectable anticoagulant," she put down the painkillers and picked up a large yellow box. "You'll need to inject once a day every day for the next 12 weeks and I must stress that while you are on the anticoagulant most over-the-counter pain medications are off limits. I've put a list of appropriate pain relief medicines in with the rest of your instructions.

"Lastly, I'd also like you to take these beta-blockers to lower your heart rate while your heart recovers. Take 1 pill once daily. With all your daily medications, make sure that you take them at roughly the same time each day but don't worry if you forget your instructions. All of the boxes have the instructions printed on them. I just need to relay them out loud to make sure that you understand them without a shadow of doubt."

Infinite remained silent and looked away in disinterest while Gadget took a deep, daunted breath. "That's a lot of meds…"

"It's actually not too bad. Most patients who undergo heart surgery need more extensive drug treatments but since Mr Jackal has a healthy weight and doesn't have worrying blood pressure levels we were able to tone it back a little. Maintaining that will help with recovery as well, so eat a healthy diet and try to do some light exercise every day starting as soon as possible. Under no circumstances are you to do any strenuous activity for at least the next six weeks, don't drive and don't lift anything heavier than 2 kilograms."

Despite the firm instruction, Simone didn't sound chiding. She leafed through the papers in the folder. "The instructions are also duplicated in these documents, as well as your follow up appointments."

"I'm not coming back here," Infinite grumbled.

"You don't have to but if that's the case you'll have to sign a waiver acknowledging that you're refusing recommended medical care."

"Where do I sign?"

Gadget smacked him in the arm in annoyance. He'd only meant for it to be a light hit but Infinite cringed and hissed as his arm jerked against his torso. Simone frowned.

"And no roughhousing," she reprimanded. "I didn't think I'd have to say that."

Gadget's ears folded back guiltily. "Sorry… but you're coming to the appointments," he said to Infinite.

"Normally, we'd have a nurse go out to check on you once a week," Simone continued, "but since you refuse to give us an address, the weekly check-ups will be hosted here as well as appointments with me to assess your recovery progress. Our first appointment will be in 15 days." She pulled out a sheet of paper with a line highlighted in yellow to emphasise the time and date of the appointment.

"Sounds good," Gadget said, voice not as optimistic as his words. It was a lot to take in. "Anything else we should know, Dr Hai?"

"That just about covers all bases," Simone replied, putting the paper away again. "I'll need to show you how to use and dispose of the injectable properly and then go through some more of these documents with you. After that, you can put your shoes and gloves back on and you're free to go."

She smiled brightly at Infinite. He scowled back. Suddenly the wolf beside him grabbed his wrist in a gentle hold, getting him to turn. Gadget gave Infinite what he hoped was a reassuring grin that promised everything would be okay and he'd look out for the jackal but instead of relaxing Infinite curled his lip at him. Gadget gulped, letting go of him and looking away. He instead focussed on Simone's hands as she picked up a dummy injector and demonstrated how it worked and where to inject, not daring to look at Infinite's face again for the rest of the appointment. Perhaps this was a bad idea after all.

* * *

Just a little over half an hour later, the two finally emerged from the hospital with Infinite back in his signature hi-tops and leather gloves but the menacing style was diminished by the large patch of week old fuzz that barely concealed pale skin and a large scar underneath. Gadget stayed close behind him, carrying a large white paper bag as one would carry the groceries, only instead of groceries he was carrying drugs, medical supplies, and paperwork.

"Is there any place in particular you'd like to go to?" Gadget asked. "I can walk you there. Pity you can't have any exhilarating experiences for the time being, otherwise I could have taken you by grappling gun. It's really fun," he said, trying to keep the mood light.

Suddenly Infinite stopped, causing Gadget to nearly bump into him. He stared at the jackal's back, wondering what was up as he stood silently for a few seconds. Then a low growl came from his throat that had all of Gadget's primal instincts scream at him to run.

"You're disgusting."

Gadget blinked. The remark hurt like a stab to the chest but he had no idea what had brought it on. He bit his lip, mulling over whether he should ask or just remain silent on the matter when Infinite elaborated on his own:

"Back there... where do you get off touching me like that? You're acting like we're boyfriends but I don't want you anywhere near me."

Gadget stammered in astonishment but didn't get a sentence out. He hadn't thought about it like that. Back in the resistance and even in the days before then physical banter like that was normal if a little painful, especially with the resistance since many of its members had varying degrees of super strength. A bump here, a hand on an arm or shoulder, a tender look, those things were given out freely, mostly by one particular blue blur. Gadget had internalised it as friendship—that's just how friends let each other know they cared—but apparently Infinite thought of it as intimacy. The realisation made him blush.

"Sorry..." he finally mumbled.

"Hmph. Do whatever you want with that junk," Infinite grumbled, waving his hand dismissively at the bag. "This is where we part ways."

He began to walk away. Gadget's jaw dropped, watching him go. It took a few seconds but he managed to come back to his senses and run after him.

"W-wait!" Gadget exclaimed, jogging a bit to catch up with his head start.

"Why are you following me? We're done."

"I promised Dr Hai that I'd take care of you. I'm not going back on it just like that."

"Of course, only your own word matters to you." Infinite walked on.

"What do you mean?" Gadget demanded, keeping up with his long strides.

"You know what I mean but you don't want to admit it to yourself." He stopped abruptly again and turned around, looming over Gadget in such close proximity due to the red wolf having nearly collided with the guy he was following. "You're selfish in your righteousness. You believe now that you've won that victory was the proof of your higher ground. So now you have the right to impose yourself on any decision that strays from your vision of what the world ought to be. I have told you enough times by now that your presence and your help is unwanted and yet you persist, frustrated to find that the puppet you inherited from the mad scientist doesn't have any strings after all. Your desperation to control this situation is pathetic."

Gadget shrank away with his tail tucked. In a way, this was the thing he hated the most about Infinite even when he had near-unlimited powers; he had a way of searching for the worst things to say to make one feel at their lowest. 'Selfish' struck a nail in his belly and 'pathetic' hammered it in. The old fear crept in again, familiar despite the stakes being much lower. The jackal hovered over him, talking down from high while everything below wavered, wobbled, and eventually burned out of existence. Gadget felt like he did back then too. It would be easy to run away and let Infinite think whatever he wanted because hurt like that was hard to fight back against but it wasn't right to let it go.

"No... you're wrong," Gadget replied, trying to make his voice bigger than the whisper it wanted to be. Infinite raised an eyebrow. "I'm not doing this for me, I'm doing this for you. The way I see it, the path you want to take only goes one way and it's hopeless. You'll die down there and then you'll feel sad for yourself thinking about how you were right all along and nobody cares about you but you're wrong because I care and so many people have already died so far and I'm not letting anybody else join that list!"

He'd shut his eyes to hide himself from the reality of what he was doing, who he was berating. It made shouting the words out a little easier and when he opened them he was shocked by how the sides had switched. Infinite seemed smaller than before. The tip of his tail wagged slightly at his ankles while Gadget's had risen to its highest and fluffiest point. Many of the passersby and those loitering a bit beyond the hospital entrance to smoke had turned to stare at him. He took a step back and coughed awkwardly.

"So, uh, yeah... war's over, no more dying."

Infinite glared at him critically but didn't bite back with a response. His tail was still lowered, which indicated to Gadget a few possible reasons for the silence. It remained down as he turned away with a gruff huff and continued to walk but upon stepping on a moderately sized hole in the pavement he stumbled hard. The world tilted blurrily. He'd thought he was over the meds but apparently not as his body was too sluggishly responding to every function his brain put out. They were all rendered obsolete when a warm bastion of stability pushed against his side, holding him steady by the waist. Any comfort he might have felt was overwhelmed by the excruciating pain in his chest. He tried to breathe through it but that was just making it worse.

"You may not want it but you clearly need it." Infinite looked down at the red wolf under his arm. Gadget smiled back at him and stood up to help him back to his feet. "I've committed to be here for you so I might as well see it through. There might not be any buses or trains running yet but maybe there's a taxi 'round here? It's probably not a good idea for you to walk all the way to my place."

"Who said we're going to your place?"

Gadget gawked at him in surprise. "You have somewhere else in mind?"

"Just one..."


	5. Chapter 5

The taxi they'd found dropped them off at the address Infinite had specified. Gadget paid the fare and the two of them got out to spend a moment standing and staring at the building before them while the taxi drove off. Gadget was gawking once again, amazed by this unexpected development. It was a regular suburban house shadowed to almost a silhouette by the fading daylight. It was in terrible shape like every other building in the city was but this area was particularly bad. Gadget remembered fighting giant robots in this area. They'd trampled houses flat as they moved through the suburbs firing lasers into the pockets of resistance forces either trying to evacuate the citizens or fend off the smaller robots in the streets. While this house still stood its condition was a testament to the futility of avoiding the chaos. From their perspective, the entire left side of the house had been demolished by crashing debris from explosions further afield. There was a skip bin in the yard filled with some of that debris and unsalvageable bits of broken wood, plaster, and brick but there was still a large pile of it that wouldn't fit in the current load.

Gadget's ear twitched in Infinite's direction as he let out a breathy sigh before walking up the path to the front door. He followed the jackal like a shadow. At the doorstep Infinite went to bend down but hissed in pain.

"Whoa, don't do that," Gadget warned a bit too late. Infinite straightened up again on shaky legs.

"The key..." Infinite said with a pained rasp.

"Why do we have to worry about the key? The lights are on inside, so someone must be home." Gadget reached for the doorbell.

"Wait—"

Too late. An electronic chime rang out into the house. After a few seconds someone inside responded: "Coming!"

Gadget turned to Infinite with a smile, cocky about having been right but it fell upon seeing the glare Infinite shot at him. But the door opened before the standoff could get too uncomfortable and Gadget gladly looked away. Facing the wild dog at the door wasn't the mood lifter he'd hoped it'd be. The man stared at them with his mouth agape in shock and his ears folded back.

"Y-you...?!" the wild dog stammered, looking specifically at Infinite.

"Hi!" Gadget greeted despite not being addressed. "I'm a friend of Infinite here. He was just in hospital and he said he wanted to come here afterwards. So, how do you two know each other?"

The dog glanced at Gadget's huge forced grin and then turned back to Infinite. His eyes narrowed and he growled. "Infinite, huh? I knew it was you!"

"I can explain..." Infinite muttered. Of all the pathetic things Gadget had heard him say over the past week, that sounded the most pathetic.

"Oh, _now_ you can explain? You couldn't have bothered explaining _before_ you disappeared for ten months after telling me you were just on a job that would 'take a while'?" the dog griped, making air quotes. "No letter, no phone call, no explanation that something had come up and you were gonna be a while longer. Still though, _ten months_?! I thought you were dead after just three! Then Dr Eggman takes over and his jackal lackey looks oddly familiar but I can't be sure because he's wearing that dumb mask and the Egghead calls him _Infinite_. Who is apparently _you_! What gave you the gumption to come back here after all that?"

Gadget clutched the medical bag, holding his spine rigid. Only his eyes moved, darting from Infinite to the dog. Just what had he walked into here?

Infinite sighed, lowering his muzzle to hide his mouth in his scarf. "Just let me inside and we can talk."

"As if I'm going to let you inside! You know, everything about you makes sense now—how you just flit in and out casually, never appreciate the things I do, all this secrecy about this 'work' that you supposedly do. You are such an asshole!"

A new voice struck through the conversation like an arrow: "Babe, you okay out there? Who is it?"

Eyes widened on Infinite and the wild dog while Gadget attempted to look past the guy in the door, confused.

"Nobody important!" the dog answered. "They were just leaving."

He attempted to slam the door shut but Infinite stuck his foot in the door. He kicked it open, startling the wild dog who had stepped away the moment he'd thought he'd shut them out. Through the wide open door the visitors finally spotted the newcomer: a tall, lanky-limbed mane wolf watching from the end of the entryway bemusedly.

Infinite snarled. "You sure didn't waste any time."

"The only time I wasted was every second I waited for you!" the wild dog retorted. "You were gone almost a year! And in that time you evidently replaced me too."

He gestured at Gadget, who started at being referred to after being ignored the whole time. "Wait, what?"

"Is that what you came around for?"

"You think I'm with this dipshit?" Infinite snapped. "I wouldn't let this wimp lick my boots but he's so thick he won't stop following me."

"Hey!" Gadget exclaimed in offence.

"But if that's the way you're going to be," Infinite said, going back to pretending Gadget wasn't there, "then consider me gone. Don't bother trying to call! Oh, and I'm taking this back."

He breached the doorstep into the house. Gadget reached out in a lame attempt to stop him just as the wild dog put his hands out to push him away if need be. He only went as far as a few steps, just far enough to pull a black leather jacket off a coat rack.

"Hang on," Gadget interrupted. "You can't just walk into other people's houses and take their stuff."

"It's mine," Infinite growled back as he put it on. Seeing him wearing it, that point was hard to argue. The jacket was a perfect fit and just his style with its sharp lapels, shiny silver zippers, and studded shoulder straps. It was hard to imagine it on the other two canids, the wild dog was so short and the mane wolf was so tall Gadget couldn't fathom it fitting either of them. Infinite then reached into one of the pockets and pulled out a set of keys. "This is mine too, and I'm also taking it back."

"Oh, is that why the bike's been there?" the mane wolf mumbled, an observation that went almost entirely unnoticed. "I thought it was odd since neither of us can drive one."

"You're a lunatic!" the wild dog yelled. "How can you... what gives you the right... some of those are for the house!"

Infinite fiddled with the key rings during a loaded silence. Once most of the keys were free, he threw them on the floor and pushed past the wild dog to the entranceway's garage door. Desperate to salvage the situation, the wild dog grabbed the doorknob, holding the garage door shut in front of Infinite.

"You can't take it! I've got someone who wants to buy it!"

"Now they can't," Infinite seethed, "because the owner who definitely isn't dead came back for it."

"Oh, no, I'm not letting you waltz in and ruin things like you think you run the place!"

The wild dog lunged and Infinite bared his teeth, ready to attack. Both the mane wolf and Gadget jumped to intervene but Gadget got there quicker, using his grappling gun to drive a line between them and slide himself into the middle as a sturdier barrier.

"I'm sorry to cause further damage to your house but I can't let this continue," he explained quickly. "Heart surgery and all."

"You're not seriously defending a thief?" the wild dog barked.

"It's not thievery if you own it," Infinite countered. The garage door was on his side of the divide so he opened it, once again moving purposefully with the intention of leaving Gadget behind.

"Wait! Sorry, gotta go! Nice meeting you somewhat and good luck on your house and relationship!" Gadget rushed out before yanking his hook from the wall and squeezing through the doorway so Infinite couldn't close it on him.

Infinite slammed the door shut, clenching his teeth hard. Gadget's ears folded back, wary of another lip curl from the jackal. Instead he got Infinite closing his eyes and wheezing in pain. He leaned forward, a white-knuckled grip on the door handle being the only thing keeping him on his feet. Throwing out inhibitions, both Infinite's and his own, Gadget put a hand on a trembling shoulder.

"You need some rest," Gadget said firmly, as a fact and a command. "And some painkillers."

Infinite opened his eyes just a smidge to glance at him. "Turn on the light and open the door. I'm getting out of here."

"Exactly how are you going to do that?" Gadget muttered, looking at him sceptically.

"Turn on the light! It's dark in here."

"Geez, what happened to magic words?" Gadget griped. "I'm not going to do what you say until you tell me what your plan is."

"It doesn't involve you."

"Yes it does. I'm taking care of you, remember?"

"You pest," Infinite hissed under his breath. "I'm getting my bike and leaving."

"You have a bike?" Gadget asked, curious enough that he began to search the wall for a light switch out of his own interest.

The fluorescent white tube light blinked to life crankily, revealing the rather tidy garage. It hosted only set of shelves, a couple of push bikes, one small red car, and the alleged bike in question covered with a sheet. Infinite let go of the doorknob and stumbled straight into the bike, burning with so much pain his hands felt numb as he yanked the sheet off. It went bit by bit, Infinite not having the strength to pull it off in one shot. Gadget gawked in awe, circling around to get a glimpse of each part of the motorcycle as it was revealed - the headlights, the handlebars, the engine, the low saddle, the fenders. It was all in black and any part of it that wasn't black glinted like silver with a few flecks of rust in the hard to reach places betraying its likely age and extent of use. It even had his insignia on both sides.

"This is so cool!" Gadget gushed in awe.

"Stop flapping your mouth like a fish," Infinite huffed, leaning over the seat to breath. That only hurt more so he pushed himself up and held onto one of the handlebars like a crutch, "and open that garage door so I can leave."

"Only one problem with that," Gadget said. Infinite glared at him, not liking that smug smirk. The wolf snatched the keys hanging from his fingers. "You can't drive, doctor's orders."

Infinite stared at him like he'd just done a magic trick. Then he scowled.

"You're not a quick learner, huh?" Gadget joked, going over to a button at the front of the garage that he guessed was the manual control for the door. He guessed right. The door squeaked and rumbled as it opened. "Your empty words aren't going to get rid of me that easily. Now, where are the helmets."

Infinite stubbornly didn't answer. Gadget remained undeterred. He put the hospital package down by the motorcycle to go snooping around the back of the garage, finding a pair of helmets on the second to bottom shelf of the shelves for the garden tools and vehicle care products. They were still in useable condition but much dustier and with cobwebs clinging to their sides after all this time without use. Gadget wiped the visor of one and brought it over to Infinite.

"This one must be yours," he chuckled, sweeping dust off a red infinity symbol on the side of the black helmet, as if the amount of ear allowance wasn't enough of a giveaway. He put it over Infinite's head, only to get Infinite feebly swatting his hands away. Gadget let him clip it up himself and fetched the second helmet, coming across a bit of a problem when it barely squeezed over his ears. "Wow, your ex has a pretty small head."

"Can you please not say anything about what you think that guy is to me."

Gadget wordlessly put the helmet down and went back to the bike. He got astride the driver's seat, a move that made Infinite stare at him incredulously.

"This is _my_ bike."

"You're not allowed to drive," Gadget pointed out. "You wouldn't be able to in this condition anyway."

"Don't you underestimate me! Have you ever driven across the Sand Hill zone with a bullet wound to the thigh and malaria coursing through your veins?!"

"That sounds like the worst," Gadget said, wide-eyed. "But you don't have to do painful things like that this time because I'm here." He leaned down to pick up the package. He held it out to Infinite. "Hold your drugs, Mr Macho, you can crash at my place."

Infinite wanted to argue but his body cried for the attention. His legs shuddered, begging him to take the backseat if only so that he could get off his feet. Gadget was patient as Infinite toed the passenger foot peg down and crawled up onto the passenger seat.

"Do you even know how to ride?" he grumbled, taking the medical supplies and securing the package between them with his arms around Gadget's waist.

"Yeah. Most of the vehicles the resistance had were motorbikes. Cars were considered too cumbersome."

"Not even for weapon transport?"

Gadget raised the kickstand and started the engine as he replied. "The only weapons we deemed necessary were the Wispons. They're pretty lightweight."

The engine rumbled under them and the exhaust roared as the cruiser kicked off, driving onto the suburban street. It was fully dark by now but the stars made no appearance. Between the lingering smog from Eggman's factories and the lights that were already back on in the cities the sky above looked like an expansive void. Infinite gazed at it ponderously as they made their way down suburban streets at a slow speed.

"I thought a goody two-shoes like you wouldn't do something so risky," he said. The helmetless driver in front of him laughed.

"Hey, 'risky' is my middle name. Did you even see me charging into the damn sun?"

Even Infinite had to concede a smirk to that. It was pretty hardcore.

They entered into a freeway where Gadget finally sped up. With the wind whipping loudly around them there could be no more conversation but the peace wasn't completely welcome. He watched the road with a deeply pensive expression, thoroughly uncomfortable with what he had witnessed earlier. It was too personal, not to mention weird. Gadget hadn't really imagined that Infinite had some form of normal life—he must have, since nobody was born built for purpose—but it didn't occur to him until that evening that he'd never considered Infinite as having the full range of experiences. He was probably a criminal, had a family that Gadget's mind gave no identity to, was certainly the kind of guy who would own a leather jacket and a motorbike, but Gadget always assumed there was a lot missing, mostly in the intimacy department. He wasn't ready to get that deep and more importantly realised that he had picked up this duty without appreciating the full extent of its responsibility. Infinite had been an asshole before he was an omnipotent sadist and so far an asshole afterwards. There might not be any reward at the end of all of this.

A stray thought randomly came to him and he mentally kicked himself for being so distracted by the drama that he missed the chance to find out what Infinite's real name was.


	6. Chapter 6

**Happy New Year :3**

* * *

Gadget had to drive more carefully in the city. The cracked roads were littered with potholes and trash piles and the occasional fire pillar from a gas pipe that still hadn't been fixed. The two arrived at a brick apartment building, built 11 storeys high. Gadget drove around to the back to a large iron-barred gate, where he stopped to search for his own set of keys in his belt pouches. Despite how old it looked the gate trundled open with the press of a button from a keychain remote, squeaking the entire way. Beyond it the driveway ramped downward to a dimly lit underground parking area. Gadget took an empty space labelled with the number 37. He shut off the engine and applied the kickstand then waited patiently for Infinite to crawl off the back. He seemed to do worse at it than he did getting on.

"Are you even allowed to park here?" Infinite asked, voice quietened by pain.

"Sure I am. It's my spot, I just don't have my own vehicle. I have a push bike." Gadget said that last part almost as though he were proud of the fact.

"The more I learn about you the lamer you become."

Infinite tried to walk away from the bike but pain made him nearly delirious. His vision swam and he couldn't work out where the exit was. Gadget's body sidled up under his arm with one arm around his back again.

"I've got you," he assured the jackal. "I'll show you my apartment."

Gadget guided him to the elevators and Infinite took careful note of the number he pressed for his floor. The elevator was a lot faster than Infinite expected it to be in what he thought was an old building, making a short ride to their stop. The doors opened with a pleasant ding and Gadget led him down the corridor to a door with the number 37 pinned above the peephole. The wolf unlocked the door and pushed it open.

"Well, this is home sweet home," he said, flicking the light switch. "It's not much but for the time being you can call it home too."

Infinite's eyes roamed over the apartment, taking in every detail of it. It was very small, built with the intention of housing one person at most. The front door opened into an open living/dining/kitchen room with the tiny kitchen space to the left of them minimally segregated from the rest of the room by a bench looking over the main sitting area. In that living space Gadget had his entertainment system mounted on cabinets with no doors but half of their hinges where they should have been, a straightedged coffee table with a chipped veneer, and one three person couch. Behind the couch a narrow hall that was little more than an annex of space would take them to the rest of the rooms, which consisted of nothing more than a bedroom, storage cupboard, and bathroom. As Gadget helped him hobble into the room and settle down on the couch a very apparent detail kept his eye.

"There's a hole in your living room wall."

"Heh heh, yeah, there kind of is."

'Kind of' wasn't the right term to describe it. There was a huge hole in the living room wall that started at the ceiling and went all the way down to the floor. It probably even encroached on the neighbour below. Gadget had cleaned up around it well but the breeze and heat from outside blew in unimpeded. At the suburban house there had at least been a drop sheet taped up to hide the missing part of the house from the inside, Gadget hadn't even done that here. Infinite didn't pry more on the subject; any question he could ask he already knew a likely answer to. Instead he kept his eyes on Gadget as he put down the medical bag and then went into the kitchen to get a cup and fill it up with water. He returned, putting the cup on the table right in front of his guest and then going through the white paper bag for a box of painkillers, rambling the entire time.

"I don't know how it happened, or even when exactly. I wasn't home at the time - which is probably a good thing otherwise I could have been really badly hurt - but since I've come back I've been really busy with the resistance and trying to help out people in need that a few things have been kinda left the way they are. I have managed to clean up all the mess but it's going to be a while before I can do more than that, replacing all the things that were broken and the like. The whole world was affected so it's not like there's even anybody further afield who can lend a hand to get things back up and running any faster."

 _Broken_. That word struck a sore note. Infinite looked away, staring at the cabinets and wondering how Gadget could sit there and ramble at him like a stranger, like he hadn't been there at the centre of the conflict. He knew how big the Eggman Empire had gotten, he practically built it. With the Phantom Ruby he was the crowning jewel of the empire. He had the whole world at his mercy and under his thumb. Nations fell and cities burned with only a thought. He had been untouchable, unescapable, undefeatable, a god on earth for how much power he had. Gravity didn't touch him, nor any other force for that matter. He had been weightless and free to control himself around the world like a child among his toys, a heavenly being of creation, everything he built he could knock down on a whim. That world of dreams was gone and now here he was, left with a faulty heart and sitting on an old couch in a tiny apartment staring at cabinets that were supposed to have glass doors and held a video game console and a soundbar but no television. The pain in his chest burned like a furnace fire. It felt like hell. He'd fallen from the top all the way down to the lowest pit and upon hitting the bottom he had broken.

He was so caught up in his own thoughts it took him a moment to register that there were a couple of pills being offered right in his face. Again he wanted to refuse but again his body made his mind weak. He took them and nearly choked trying to swallow both of them dry until Gadget shoved the cup into his mouth and poured it down his throat in a panic. Enough made it in to chase the pills down but most of it spilled over his muzzle and up his nose. He coughed and spluttered, each spasm making his chest sear like the scalpel was slicing through over and over again.

"Sorry..." Gadget mumbled, pulling back to hold the cup in his lap. "Please don't do things like that."

Infinite coughed a bit more, trying to hold back but the weaker he forced his coughs to be the more his diaphragm wanted to expel. "Just... let me be... you made it worse."

"No I didn't! You're not supposed to take pills dry."

"I have taken plenty of pills dry in my life. All you did is make a mess." He wiped at his face and around the scar on his chest to remove the excess water but it just spread even more. Gadget gulped and stood up with the cup. There he went, making him feel horrible again.

"Are you hungry? I have some canned soup I can heat up and I'll get you some more water," he said. Infinite didn't respond, so Gadget just went to the kitchen to do what he'd suggested.

In the kitchen he moved slow and sluggishly, as though he was already exhausted. He made two bowls of soup from one can and put them in the microwave to heat while he dispensed more water from a filtration system on his bench. It was a basic design - a red bucket on the top had the parts to strain the water into the reservoir beneath. Water still came out of the taps in most places but it had become undrinkable due to the pollution and infrastructure damage caused by the war. Gadget counted himself lucky that the worst he had to put up with in his apartment was a slightly muddy colour and that he could still use it so long as he filtered it first. In some other districts tap water ran with an unpleasant odour, was brown or black, or ran as sludge rather than liquid. Until the issue was resolved, filtered or bottled water was the only option.

Gadget didn't try to make another conversation with Infinite once he returned with the full cup. The microwave's high-pitched beep called him back quickly to retrieve the bowls. He put a spoon into one and picked it up with a tea towel to carry over to the coffee table then went back for his own bowl and settled against the kitchen bench to eat it. He caught Infinite eyeing him strangely but the black one didn't say anything, instead picking up his own bowl to eat. It had been a long day. Gadget realised this as they ate in silence on opposite ends of the room. An intense meeting that morning followed by the hospital visit in the afternoon and then that personal disaster in the evening. Infinite had battled him the entire time they were together with his stubborn refusal but he was showing signs of changing his tune. He let Gadget drive him home in the end and took his pills. Gadget smiled. He could break through yet.

It remained silent between the two of them when Gadget collected the empty bowls and cup, the only sounds in the apartment being the whoosh of the ceiling fan blades and the city noises outside. Gadget's bed would be big enough for both of them but he figured Infinite would probably want to sleep alone. There was no reason to push him, they'd made enough progress for today. He washed their few dishes just to get them out of the way before going down the hall to get a spare blanket and pillow for his guest but as he did it dawned on him that having Infinite sleep on the couch wasn't the best thing. What if it was too uncomfortable for him to sleep well? What if it forced him to sleep in a way that hindered his healing? What if the painkillers numbed him enough to make him feel like he was capable of climbing out the living room hole? If he left in the middle of the night while Gadget slept away peacefully in his bedroom he might never notice the jackal leaving and he'd be long gone by the time Gadget awoke. He walked fast back to the living room, a niggling thought telling him that Infinite could be doing that right now. However, he was still there on the couch where Gadget had left him. He was lying down with his legs up on one armrest so that his upper body could lie flat on the cushions. His eyes were wide awake but dilated and distant from the painkillers' effect.

"Hey," Gadget said softly, putting the linen on the coffee table as he knelt beside the couch. "You can take my bed tonight. It'll be more comfortable."

"I just got comfortable here," Infinite retorted.

"I insist," Gadget told him firmly.

Infinite growled but complied nonetheless. He lowered his legs slowly from the armrest to the floor lifting his torso up at the same time but keeping it as straight as possible until he was sitting up. Gadget offered a hand to help him. Infinite slapped it away and stood up on his own, shuffling around the couch to the hall. Gadget went ahead of him to open the only door on the left wall of the hall and scurried inside to start turning down the sheets before Infinite got there.

Gadget's bedroom was basic like the rest of his apartment. Adjacent to the door he had a cabinet for his shoes and at the end of his bed a dresser for his socks and gloves. There were two windows on the opposite side of the room but the glass had been smashed out and Gadget had covered the jagged frames with cardboard. In the corner opposite the door Gadget had his desk and computer with a printer and scanner next to a pile of papers of varying size held under a paperweight shaped like a fat penguin.

Infinite sat down on the edge of the bed where Gadget had pulled the sheets aside for him. He bent down to get to his shoes but thought better of it when pain stabbed through his chest despite the painkillers.

"I can do that for you," Gadget offered.

Infinite side-eyed him. He lifted his feet one by one onto the edge of the bed to loosen his shoes and let them drop onto the floor beneath him. Then he turned to Gadget with a smug but tired look. The strong painkillers were taking the energy out of him. He didn't bother with his socks as he lay down. The world faded. He thought Gadget asked him something but he wasn't sure—he must have been a lot more tired than he thought.

Gadget had never before seen someone literally conk out the moment their head hit the pillow. He chuckled with amusement, knowing it was safe to do so. He rolled Infinite's socks off and took off his gloves and scarf, leaving them on the other side of the bed for when he woke up, then pulled the sheet up to tuck him in. Gadget lingered there, looking at his guest's face knowing what kind of angry expression he would probably be wearing if he'd been awake to witness himself being treated like a child. His imagination was helped by the fact that Infinite didn't really have a cute sleeping face. The scruffy fur around his muzzle and the white hairs on his face scar hardened him even with his eyes closed while his eyebrows appeared perpetually pinched even when relaxed. It seemed that no amount of drugs could change his mood. Infinite didn't even smile in hospital and before that he always had that mask obscuring his every expression.

"I wish I could imagine what you look like happy," Gadget murmured.

He stood up and switched off the light as he left, giving Infinite some blessed darkness for a good night's sleep.


	7. Chapter 7

Waking up to the light of the morning sun was odd after having missed it for three months now. With his windows boarded up his bedroom had been confined to darkness during the day time and only lit by the electric light for a few hours in the evening. He sat up, feeling the ache of stiffness in his back and neck from sleeping on the couch and tried to stretch it out. A deep, relieved sigh left him as he lowered his arms before he reached for his glasses on the coffee table beside him. He stood up and scratched his back, exasperating the worse than usual state of his bed body and then turned to the kitchen for his early morning pick-me-up. He froze. Teal eyes shadowed by powdered eyelids stared at him from over one of his mugs as a white bat behind his kitchen counter took what seemed to be the slowest sip ever.

"Morning, sunshine," Rouge said sweetly but her smirk was anything but. Gadget just gaped. "What? No greeting? Is that any way to treat a friend?"

Gadget stammered but a proper response didn't come out. He looked down the hall, seeing his bedroom door was still closed but for all he knew that didn't mean a thing right now.

"Not even offering me breakfast," Rouge tutted, "that's no way to treat a lady. I even had to make my own coffee."

Gadget stuttered in a panic. "How did you...?" No, that was obvious. "What are you...?" Also obvious. "Why...?" Still a bit obvious.

"Oh come on, you know I've been keeping an eye on Public Enemy No. 1," Rouge said. "At first I was a little miffed, thinking Knuckles had thrown you in the mix because he didn't trust me or something but after yesterday's meeting I realised you're not in it for the resistance otherwise you would have reported something. Besides, Knuckie isn't wily enough to put together a scheme hanging on false sympathy - making it seem like you care just to keep him close but ready to subdue at the drop of a dime."

"I-it's not l-like that."

"No? Then why'd you do it?"

Gadget's eyes shifted to the hall again. Still no movement. "He's sick."

She paused about to take another sip of her coffee and stared at him. "And...?"

He stared back at her, thinking he got the gist of what she was asking but he only had an honest answer forthcoming. "That's... that's all. He's sick from what the Phantom Ruby did to him and I felt bad."

Her eyes narrowed judgmentally. Gadget gulped, sweating under her scrutiny. She finally took that sip, humming thoughtfully and averting her gaze. "So you're saying the Phantom Ruby had some sort of drawback?"

"I guess," Gadget shrugged. "I mean, I'm no scientist or techie so I don't really have any theories but it seems that his body wouldn't have been able to handle the Ruby's power indefinitely."

Rouge nodded and made an interested hum. "That so?" she smirked. "Tell me more."

"I don't really have anything more to tell. That's my entire understanding of it. His body wore down to the point that it made him sick."

"Cardiovascular problems?"

Gadget blinked at her. He'd been deliberately avoiding mentioning those on the belief that Infinite would probably wring his neck if anybody else found out but Rouge had said that as less of a question and more like a statement pending clarification. She nodded to the coffee table behind him. He looked. Was the medicine bag in a slightly different position to how he left it? He wasn't paying close enough attention to it to remember if it was lying that way last night. Its contents would be infallible evidence for Infinite's condition.

"Then I'm guessing he's going to be on bed rest for at least the next 6 weeks," Rouge extrapolated, downing the dregs of her coffee. She sighed in relief. "That makes my job so much easier! Knuckles is such a slave-driver, expecting me to take on this extra assignment and help with the restoration efforts. The extra workload is doing horrors for my skin."

Gadget pursed his lips and furrowed his brow, concentrating hard on her face. Her skin didn't seem any less flawless from his perspective, though her face could have been caked in makeup. He couldn't keep staring because she walked out of his kitchen and towards him casually.

"We don't have any problems so long as he stays here under your tender loving care," she said teasingly, holding the mug out for him to take. Then her demeanour changed sharply, "but I expect you to remember where your loyalties are supposed to lie. Any changes and you are to report to base, got it?"

Gadget gulped, cradling the mug in both hands. He nodded.

"Good." She patted him on the shoulder. "For your cooperation, I won't tell Knuckles. With his temper he'd probably fly in and punch your couch in two and I get the sense that you don't need any more broken things in here."

She snickered, glancing at the hole in the wall.

"I know I'll have to tell the others myself eventually," Gadget admitted.

"Oh, good boy!" she exclaimed, rewarding him with a patronising pat on the head. "I was worried for a second there that I'd have to spell it out for you. I would suggest sooner rather than later to let the truth come out—it has a way of stewing in the dark."

She turned away with a disappointed huff. Gadget glared at her with head hair that now resembled the proverbial bird's nest, put off by that reaction. If he knew better, he would have thought that she was upset that she couldn't rile him up to take a swipe at her. At the edge of the living room she spread her wings and hopped out of the apartment right into midair, turning back briefly just to remind him:

"Regardless of our little talk here, I'm still watching." Then with a strong flap she was leaving.

Gadget remained rooted to his spot for a while, flexing his ears until he was sure that she was gone for the time being. He looked down at the white mug in his hands and that obnoxious pink lipstick mark on the rim before putting on the coffee table. With a burst of worried adrenalin, he vaulted over his couch and ran down the hall to throw his bedroom door open, flicking on the light as he stepped in.

Vacant.

The sheets on the bed were pushed back and left where they fell. Gadget's heart skipped a beat. He rushed to the bed to feel the sheets, check if they were still warm or had gone cold in the night, but when he got to the edge he tripped onto the mattress. Adjusting his glasses that had been jolted in the near fall, he looked at his feet in search of the item he tripped over. Infinite's shoes. They were still lying where they'd been messily left the night before.

He instantly feared the worst. There were only a few reasons he could think of for why someone would leave and completely forget their shoes. Mental images of a black and white body mangled and twisted in a pool of red on the concrete outside the apartment flashed through his mind. He got up to rush back out but stopped at the doorway when he realised he was jumping the gun in the most moronic way possible. Rouge wouldn't have had that conversation with him if Infinite was dead on the footpath just outside. But the jackal hadn't been out into the living area since Gadget woke up. Catching his breath and relaxing again, Gadget stepped into the hall and turned to his bathroom door. The inwards swinging door was open a crack and a large amber eye peered out. Gadget's first offhand thought was how strange that was. Knowing how the door and the walls were configured in this house it would have been quite an uncomfortable contortion into a small space to look through that gap with the left eye but the thought was cut short by the door slamming shut.

Gadget calmly made his way to the door and knocked. "Infinite? Are you okay?"

No response.

"Do you want some breakfast? All I can offer is egg on toast with coffee or tea."

Still no answer. Gadget's ears drooped.

"Are you mad at me?"

"Am I mad at you for effectively placing me under supervised house arrest while I was none the wiser?" Infinite sarcastically replied.

"You heard everything, right? So you know it's not like that."

"Why should I trust you? You're with the resistance and it's abundantly clear who's side you'll choose when it comes down to the wire."

"The war's over. There are no sides anymore unless you want there to be. And even then, why do you want there to be sides? Why do you want to keep fighting us?"

"I'd rather fight than be further reduced to a childlike weakling submissively keening for mercy at the fragile behest of those who defeated me."

"You wouldn't have to beg, some of the others are already sympathetic towards you," Gadget replied but stopped himself from going any further, realising that he was letting Infinite lead the conversation. He sighed. "Now's the time for living without battles."

"In this world, battles are daily," Infinite said in a low voice. "Surviving is a fight that not everybody is equipped to win: the strong live, the weak perish."

Gadget frowned, glaring at the door. His back and shoulders prickled as his hair stood on end. "I'm actually not a fan of social Darwinism and you'll probably find that none of my friends are either. Stop hiding behind a door because you're afraid of your insecurities betraying you and trust me. I'm trying my best."

"I'll bet you're one of those kids who grew up in a rose-coloured bubble. Everything cruel about the world was sheltered from you and caused you to turn a blind eye to how everything is built around you. For all your successes somebody else has failed and you stepped over them to take your place. We only rise when others fall and the broken failures get left behind."

Gadget punched the door, startling Infinite into quiet. His breath came fast and hard, hissing through his teeth as he tried to pull air deeper into his lungs to calm himself from that impulsive fury. "The world isn't like that. The resistance isn't like that. We never left anyone behind when they were down and we won. We didn't have to hide ourselves behind masks and illusory armies because from start to finish we were not alone. You can know what it's like to have someone standing beside you too. Just let me in."

"Stay out there," Infinite growled through the door.

"Come on, open the door," Gadget said irritably. "Even if you don't want to be friends, you still need to take your medication, remember. It's gotta be the same time every day and it'll be more convenient in the morning."

The door clicked open. Gadget didn't barge in, he stepped back in wait. Infinite's gloveless hand tossed something through the gap before the door shut immediately. It clattered lightly on the floor and rolled, nudging Gadget's socked feet. It was a syringe, used up since the cap had extended over the needle. He picked it up, holding it tightly in his hand. He didn't know why Infinite made him so angry. Everything the jackal said to try and put him down irritated him like having his fur rubbed backwards. All of Infinite's thoughts and values seemed to run reverse to his own. How could Gadget make him see differently?

He took a deep calming breath and then turned and walked off to the kitchen where he could dispose of the needle appropriately and get started on breakfast. All he could do was continue to extend the peace offerings and hopefully Infinite would come to realise what a treasure life could be. Plus he was bound to get hungry eventually and if he didn't come out to eat Gadget would simply eat all the food for himself.


	8. Chapter 8

The wolf and the jackal sat side-by-side together on the couch, looking over the newspaper since there was no television to broadcast into the living room. Things like that were the new normal after the war, at first because electricity was down in many places and afterwards because of broken infrastructure or televisions with no manufacturers to help repair them. The summer nights were still hot and though the fan valiantly tried to fight the heat it only made harder the task of turning pages and keeping them flat to be read. The two of them had been doing this a lot in the past week - being mundane together in a manner so domestic that everything of philosophical importance died away. There was no conflict, nothing to resolve; Infinite almost didn't understand it.

Gadget laughed at something, causing Infinite to look up. They faced each other, Gadget grinning as he spoke of… something. Infinite couldn't tell what; his voice was warped and words warbled together into muffled and incoherent mumblings. His red fur began to glow. It was beautiful but Infinite shuddered at an unexplained sensation of eeriness. It took a while for him to realise that Gadget's fur wasn't just glowing, his whole body and everything on it had an aura of red bleeding off it and ripples and waves of distorted space radiated from him. Then he began to crumble. His body dissolved into tiny red cubes that tumbled over each other like water dripping off melting ice. Infinite watched in horror. He reached out hoping to salvage anything but with one touch the wolf collapsed like a pillar of sand, leaving behind only flecks of red and black whirling around a tiny void like a black hole.

The world went dark and the hand reaching out to his companion touched glass. Infinite looked around. Glass surrounded him in a tube where he floated miraculously, completely contained. In the corner of his eye he saw flickers of yellow movement and turned to it. It was one of Eggman's robot companions—the stupid one. It bustled around him, polishing the glass like it had nothing better to do. A scream came from behind him and he turned around, feeling like he was suspended in water. Rows upon rows of similar tubes filled the room, so many of them that they seemed endless. The anthropomorph just behind him - another jackal - had already melted beyond recognition, the prototype in their chest cracking under strain. Matter peeled away into energy but the conversion remained so well contained that the energy and mass fused into red plasma and filled the tube up. The red robot watched it happen impassively. Then suddenly the energy collapsed in on itself, forming a small space-time tear with those demonic red and black cubes coalescing around it until they settled into a reality-defying block plugging the rip. The red robot wordlessly leaned towards a computerised panel at the bottom of the tube and pressed a few buttons. The tube whirred with the low tone of something powering down.

"Life support systems for subject #125 have been disabled," the robot reported, sounding like it was right next to both his ears at once.

"Good. No need to waste energy, after all."

Infinite's vision turned around without him bidding it and the smug face of the moustachioed mad scientist came into view, smirking up at him.

"Besides, I have a good feeling about a specific subject."

Infinite raised his left hand to stare at it. He had the impression that he was supposed to feel full of power and the world under his control. But when he tried to close his hand into a fist it shuddered instead. Raw red energy engulfed him and his fingers began to melt away, followed by the rest of his hand in an unstoppable cascade of abject failure. A scream of terror ripped from his throat.

That dark lab was abruptly replaced with a dim bedroom ceiling. Slivers of sunlight tried to creep in past the cardboard in the windows. Every part of him felt taut and raw, dried out and hollow as his mind tried to grasp where he was and what was happening beyond the searing pain that flared with every beat of his heart. He could barely register anything around him except for something tight in his left hand. He lifted it, feeling resistance and turned to look at it.

Another hand grasped his back, holding tightly. Black and red contrasted vividly even in the near dark and for a few panicked moments it was all he could register as real. As he squirmed in discomfort he began to pick up more details about his surroundings - the bed and the sheets twisting around him, the fan above blowing air over him, sweat in his fur that was probably the initial source of discomfort. None of it had been apparent before, drowned out by the pain that had become the most prominent part of his life, throbbing in his ears and pulling at his nerves.

"Are you okay?"

Gadget's voice still sounded muffled and far away like he had cotton in his ears. "It sounded like you were having a nightmare."

Infinite glanced at his face briefly and the earnest, concerned eyes slightly magnified by his large glasses but quickly looked back at the intertwined hands. Despite being so tense the physical feeling was enormously comforting. The tension in his muscles wound from his semi-numb fingers, up his arm to his shoulder and up the back of his neck. He body was solidly there yet his drowsy mind irrationally pounded in panic over the possibility that the moment he let go he would melt into oblivion. Holding onto Gadget would be the only thing that kept him alive and real.

"This is starting to hurt now," Gadget squeaked. His voice cut clear through Infinite's head and he sighed with relief at the approach of clarity. He released his grip in time with the breath leaving him. Gadget's hand flexed in his but he didn't let go. "Feel better?"

Infinite snatched his hand away and snorted irritably. He tried to get up fast but the bend in his torso lit a fire under his ribs and urged him to lie back down. Gadget read the tight grimace, even though Infinite didn't make a sound.

"I'll get some painkillers," he said, standing up, "and that sternum supporter. I'll let you come out when you're ready but don't leave it too long. We've gotta go see the nurse at the hospital today, remember?"

He left the room, leaving Infinite in bed clenching his fists over the bed sheets. Before he could have stopped it, a weak little voice in his mind had begged Gadget to stay and only an acute sense of his own pride stopped it coming out. His body felt steadier now but his soul still shook and yearned for the reassurance that it wasn't real, never would be. He growled at himself. He couldn't lower himself to whining for comfort and company like an anxious puppy and he wouldn't wait around to be tended to like an infirm (even though he technically was still infirm). More carefully, he rose his torso, using his arms and abs to support it at a rigid angle and once he was upright he could swivel around, kick the sheet away and stand up. Pain affected every part of him despite only being in one place and he stumbled out of the room. Gadget stood behind the kitchen bench with the pills measured out in his hand while he filled a cup with water. He looked up about to take them back to the bedroom and paused seeing Infinite emerging from the hall by himself to go and sit on the couch.

"You're up," Gadget stated.

Infinite lowered his ears in frustration. Over the past couple of weeks he'd noticed that Gadget had a tendency to make statements out of the most obvious things and the repeated redundancy grated on his nerves. Though he was beginning to suspect that this was a habit he'd developed as result of living almost completely alone. The entire time Infinite had been here he had never seen any neighbours drop in even though he heard them through the walls sometimes. He sometimes saw or heard Gadget on the phone to someone, mostly someone who sounded like they were with the resistance but occasionally there was a random conversation that lacked any sort of importance as far as he could tell from the one side he witnessed but none of those people had visited, at least not since the bat was there. Gadget continued on with his life, chipper despite his precarious situation and eagerly doing as much as he could to indulge his houseguest.

"You can take the painkillers first and I'll get you the rest of your medication," Gadget said, bringing the glass and the pills to the coffee table. "We'll be at the hospital a bit early—I need to drop you off and then report to base for some resistance stuff, so there'll be a bit of waiting around. Sorry about that. Do you want some cereal for breakfast? Or toast with butter?"

Infinite rolled his eyes. Dairy products had come back into the stores this past week. Gadget was stoked. "Sure."

Gadget went back to the kitchen to somehow fulfil that vague response but halfway there a knock on the door made him freeze. It was several quick raps, impatiently fast like gunfire on his door that made his heart drop into his feet. He looked back at Infinite, who just stared back at him with cup and pills in hand and raised an eyebrow.

"Yo, Gadget!" the person on the other side called. Gadget gulped and Infinite's eyes widened. They both knew that voice. "Are you in or what?"

"C-coming!" Gadget answered. He scrambled for the front door before the person on the other side could get impatient again and opened the door just a hand's width, only enough for him to see out and be able to block his visitors from seeing in.

On the other side stood Tails and Sonic with his hands folded behind his head. He grinned at Gadget. "Finally! I was wonderin' if you were ever gonna answer."

"He could have been out," Tails suggested reasonably.

"Out? Who's out at this time of the morning?"

"Currently, we are."

"Touché." Sonic turned his attention back to Gadget and his expression became sly. "So Rookie, how's your 'hot water'?"

Gadget blanched. "I-it's great! Yeah, r-really swell! Warm showers are super great! Um..."

"Are you going to invite us in or do we just have to stand here?" Tails asked.

"Uh, y-y-yeah, um, just hold on a sec, it's a huge mess in here."

Gadget slammed the door. He turned around, bracing himself against it as though he expected Sonic and Tails to beat it down. Infinite took another sip of water, watching Gadget panic with an amused smirk. The wolf nearly leaped off the door and grabbed the white bag off the kitchen counter.

"You need to hide, they're coming in," he hissed.

"Just tell them to wait outside," Infinite dismissed. "Why are they even here?"

"They're not supposed to be here! They were supposed to wait at the base but they showed up out of the blue and now you have to get out of sight before they see you!"

"And where exactly am I going to hide in your tiny apartment?"

"The bathroom?" Gadget thought aloud. "No, they might need to pee while they're here. The cupboard? No, it's got shelves, you'd have to bend over. Just go back to the bedroom. There's no reason for them to be in there. And take your meds."

Gadget thrust the medication bag at Infinite and ushered him to his feet at the same time, herding him to the hall faster than Infinite was willing to go.

"Don't push me around!" Infinite growled.

"Don't ruin this! They still don't know I'm harbouring you here and if they find out now instead of out my own mouth it'll be bad for both of us."

Gadget shoved him back into the bedroom. He was about to slam the door closed but paused as a thought came to him. "Er, you might have to get yourself breakfast since they may now be expecting me to leave with them. Also, you'll have to walk to the appointment yourself. Here, have my spare key."

Gadget hurried down the hall to the end table, which had a single drawer where he kept some of his miscellaneous items. He returned with a house key without a keychain and forced Infinite to take it in hand. Infinite looked down at it curiously as Gadget shut the door in his face. Gadget only took a moment for a big breath of relief and then ran back to the front door to open it. Sonic and Tails were still standing there, Sonic looking amused and Tails looking the exact opposite.

"Okay, you can come in now!"

Gadget stood back and gestured for them to come inside. Sonic sauntered in upon invitation with Tails following him and scrutinising everything as though he might find a clue to expose Gadget's odd behaviour.

"Have you eaten yet?" Gadget asked out of mere courtesy as he shut the door.

"The chilli dog stands aren't open yet," Sonic grumbled. "So, no."

"We both had an energy bar," Tails answered more helpfully, "but Sonic's pretty much always hungry unless he gets the equivalent of twenty chilli dogs in one sitting. Going so fast all the time burns up tons of calories."

"I can't offer the equivalent of twenty chilli dogs but I have cereal and milk," Gadget said. "I haven't had breakfast yet and that's all I was going to have. You're welcome to some if you want."

"It ain't chilli dogs but I'll take it," Sonic said, propping his elbow up on the kitchen bench as he leaned on it.

Tails peered into the kitchen as Gadget turned his back on them to pull out crockery, cutlery, and food. Gadget kept his kitchen quite clean, cleaner than the kitchen ever got at his home he had to embarrassingly admit to himself, though Gadget didn't have as many appliances and other domestic items cluttering the benches. It all seemed nondescript until Tails picked up a detail in the drying rack that he'd glazed over on the first scan. He turned to Sonic, pointing his thumb at it and mouthing: "there's two of everything."

Sonic's grin only widened and he winked. "It's just like I told ya," he whispered.

"Huh? Were you saying something?" Gadget asked, placing everything on the kitchen bench at once.

"Why don't you have a table to eat on?" Sonic said distractedly, scooping the spoons out of the bowl at the top of the stack and picking it up to examine it.

"I've never had one," Gadget shrugged. He took a bowl for himself and poured out some cereal, then passed the box to Tails. "Ever since I moved here I've always eaten on the couch, usually with the TV on."

"Sounds boring." Gadget watched in dismay as Sonic received the cereal box from Tails and poured himself a mountain topped off with the cereal dust from the very bottom. "Is that all you did before joining the resistance?"

"No. I had a job and a hobby and stuff... you know, real life."

"Then you must be what they call a 'regular guy'." Sonic poured milk over the top of his cereal, letting it rise to the rim. It wasn't nearly enough to submerge the mountain but it would have to do. Gadget shook the milk carton, saddened by the quiet slosh of the few mouthfuls left. "Don't think we've ever met one of those before."

"What about Amy?" Gadget asked. "She seems normal."

"Yeah, emphasis on 'seems'."

"Not even the detectives?"

"I dunno. Is being a detective a normal sort of career? Even if it is, they're all kinda kooky in their own way," Sonic rambled around large mouthfuls of cereal. Watching him eat was fascinating in a gross way; every spoonful he picked up was so large Gadget thought it would inevitably fall and create some sort of mess. "Hmm... maybe Vanilla and Cream have a normal life - you've never met them. Tails, do you know if Cream goes to school?"

Tails looked up from his cereal bowl to give Sonic a miffed look. "You know what? Whether or not Cream goes to school isn't the relevant issue here. You're just wilfully ignoring the time bomb in the room. We've been a team these past few months and with everything so broken down as it is keeping secrets from each other isn't helpful and only builds mistrust, especially if those secrets are so petty it's really not worth keeping them."

"W-what are you saying?" Gadget stammered, putting his spoon down so nobody would see it shake from his nervousness.

"Gadget, we know. We figured it out."

Gadget's skin went cold and he stared at Tails like he'd been caught in the headlights.

"Whoa, c'mon Tails, we talked about this," Sonic interrupted. "Be a bro."

"No, Sonic! This isn't fair to anyone and it's stupid," Tails argued. "Gadget, we know about your girlfriend."


	9. Chapter 9

Gadget was so nonplussed by Tails' statement he went from feeling cold and horrified to suddenly unable to feel anything. He wordlessly stared at the fox in the exact same position and with the same expression as before. Meanwhile, Sonic smacked himself in the face.

"Sorry, Rookie," he muttered, dragging his hand down to his chin, "but Tails wouldn't let it go. He thought it was a big deal so I had to tell him."

"And sure, maybe in normal times it would make sense to hide your relationship until you were sure things were working out," Tails continued, "but this is basically the post-apocalypse. Who you're dating is pretty much the lowest on everyone's priority list."

"No it's not," Sonic argued, "it's still important! In fact, it's more important. Isn't that right, Rookie?"

Gadget turned to Sonic, alarmed that he was being tapped in and sweating bullets. What was he supposed to say? They apparently had no idea of the true nature of his houseguest so should he deny it or go along with whatever theory they had cooked up in their own heads? Denying it would allow him to stick to his original story - the plumber came, went, and Tails was extrapolating wildly beyond reason - and keep things simple. However, the pair had already seen through that as a bald-faced lie and seemed to be completely convinced of their secret girlfriend theory and he had no idea to what depths their imaginations went to. His mouth opened and closed like a goldfish stupidly gawking at everything in front of it. Thankfully, an exasperated interjection from Tails absolved him from having to answer straight away:

"Sonic, there are oil spills in every ocean, a quarter of the remaining forests in the world were cut down in a six month period, 60% of the world's groundwater reservoirs have been contaminated with chemicals, half of the arable land has become wasteland, and a third of the world's population is still missing. And that's just the tip of the iceberg! We have so many problems that having our friends act suspicious over relationship drama is the last thing anybody needs."

"Then focus your worrywarting on the big problems," Sonic said, pausing to munch on a mouthful of cereal, "and don't sweat the relationship drama. Our rookie is a totally stand up, trustworthy guy and a regular guy to top it off. He had no obligation to put his hand in with us but he did it anyway because justice rules and Eggman drools. Surely after everything we've faced you could trust him enough to let him keep his personal life personal."

"Small stuff has a really big impact sometimes," Tails argued. "What if his girlfriend is secretly an agent of Dr Eggman?"

"That's loony! I'm sure Rookie is a good enough judge of moral character that he would never fall for someone like that."

"How do you know?"

Gadget knew he should have been thinking about a way to butt into this conversation but no matter how he tried he couldn't think of something he could say to them. His mind kept turning back to why's and how's. What exactly did Gadget say to cause Sonic and Tails to come up with such a farfetched story? He realised it had to go back to the call he got from the hospital a week ago at the very least but why did they assume his made up plumber was actually a girlfriend? The more he thought about it the more lewd parallels he began to draw and Sonic's sneaky question ("how's your 'hot water'?") suddenly took on a double meaning made worse when he realised how Sonic probably construed his fumbling, stupid answer ("warm showers are super great!"). There was only one thing people sounded that excited about and it wasn't warm water. Gadget's muzzle and fur became a matching hue and he wanted to pick up his bowl and smash it into his face, cereal, milk and everything.

"Well, Rookie?" Sonic and Tails both demanded.

Gadget blinked and looked up. His fingers flexed around his bowl, having been on the brink of actually throwing food all over his face. Sonic and Tails stared at him expectantly. He shrunk back, knowing he'd missed a very crucial point in the conversation while thinking about sex. He turned to Sonic, hoping that the blue hedgehog would blurt out something unintentionally helpful again but all he did was stare back and chomp down on more absurdly large mouthfuls of food. With less hope, Gadget turned to Tails but he didn't have any extra facts he felt the need to input this time.

Gadget licked his lips and swallowed as his fingertips drummed the side of his bowl, making dainty tapping sounds. "Well..." he floundered, "you're right?"

"Who's right?" the duo asked in unison, slamming a hand on the bench as they leaned forwards.

Gadget shrunk back even further and his ears folded back. "Um... neither?"

"How can one of us be right if both of us are wrong?" Tails snapped.

Gadget stumbled over consonants for a way to correct that but Sonic interrupted: "Maybe because we're both wrong about the same thing." His gaze turned thoughtful albeit scrutinising. "Rookie, are you gay?"

Gadget's jaw fell open and his eyes widened.

"It's okay if you are, we're not gonna judge or anything."

Tails' harsh glare retreated in embarrassment. "Y-yeah, it's totally fine with us and probably with the others too so it wouldn't mean anything if you came out to them... I think."

"But if you are then that means that I'm right, right?"

"That doesn't necessarily follow," Tails argued.

"I _am_ right," Sonic insisted. "Gadget and his boyfriend - or girlfriend - have no bearing on our business as the resistance and it's none of our business what their relationship is unless they wanna make it our business."

"I still say that's a potentially reckless viewpoint that has its merits during peacetime but could jeopardise military efforts."

"We're the rebels, not the military! That's G.U.N.'s job and boy did they do a swell job when they failed miserably against Infinite and left us to clean up the mess," Sonic said sarcastically.

"Since we're basically doing their job it's within reason to describe our activities similarly."

"Sonic's right," Gadget said forcefully, causing the pair to stop bickering and look at him. Sonic only did so for a second before giving Tails a gloating grin. "Partially."

That grin fell and they both stared at him quizzically. The best lies were based in truth, so here went nothing: "I don't have a girlfriend or boyfriend but even if I did I wouldn't want everyone in the resistance talking about it. I fought the war with you, I'm not a fool. If I thought somebody close to me might be conspiring with a villain I would be sensible about it but for the time being it's not an issue. At all."

"Then why does it look like you've been having dinner for two?" Tails pressed, pointing to the dish rack.

"Last night I had a friend over for dinner. Someone who didn't join the resistance because..." Gadget glanced at the hallway as he paused, "because he was afraid that he wasn't strong enough. That's why you wouldn't know him and he'd be embarrassed to know you at the moment."

Sonic and Tails kept staring at him in a sober moment of silence. Neither of them could bring themselves to fault anyone for that. War was hard. Every day they had to stare their own mortality in the face and while Sonic and Tails were used to it for the first time in a long time they'd met people who'd never lived with that before. There were very few former military folk to recruit after G.U.N. and the independent nations had failed to defend the world against Dr Eggman's initial onslaught so the majority of the ranks were ordinary citizens with twitching noses and quivering tails. A lot of them hadn't lived to see the world they tried to get back.

Not one to remain still or quiet for long, Sonic spoke up: "Well, can't blame him for that."

He lowered his head and shovelled the rest of his breakfast into his mouth noisily. Gadget gaped at him in disbelief. Between the back and forth of the conversation Gadget and Tails had only managed to finish half of their food but Sonic had demolished the mountain and was now digging into the bowl. He lifted it to slurp up the dregs and then put it down with a satisfied sigh. He sure took being the fastest thing alive seriously, Gadget thought.

"You mind if I use your bathroom?" Sonic asked, standing up and dropping his spoon into his bowl where it made a musical clatter. "Gotta take a leak."

He didn't run or dash like he usually did but Sonic moved faster than anyone Gadget had ever seen at a walk. Once the bathroom door shut, Tails' nose twitched and he became intensely interested in his food as an alternative to looking at Gadget at all. Gadget followed suit, feeling depressingly awkward.

"I'm sorry," Tails mumbled.

Gadget's ears pricked forwards but he'd heard. He looked up at Tails who was still looking into his milk and cereal.

"It was kinda mean of me to demand all that from you. It's just... the world fell so far and we're all really vulnerable right now and I don't want anything to ruin everything we're trying to fix."

"I understand," Gadget said, offering a sympathetic smile but that didn't brighten Tails' mood.

"Sonic's right, as usual. As far as role models go, he sets such a high bar and no matter how independent I think I'm becoming I never feel like I'm ever going to be as good as him. We were fighting Eggman for months but it wasn't until you were able to bring Sonic back that things started to turn around. Whenever he's around things don't go wrong. He's effective and charismatic and he never seems to do the wrong thing."

"That's not true," Gadget blurted reflexively, thinking only about making the little fox feel better. Tails glanced at him sceptically, so Gadget came up with the only hard example he could think of: "Just now, he ate all my cereal and most of my milk. That was pretty rude. And his table manners are terrible."

Tails laughed despite himself. Gadget mentally patted himself on the back for a job well done.

Meanwhile, Sonic had just finished up in the bathroom and stepped out into the hall, whistling absentmindedly. His ears swivelled towards the living room were the canines were chatting. Nothing extraordinary - if anything that was a good thing - but as he turned to return to them his ever alert ears swivelled back to a mysterious sound in the bedroom. Something clattered and rattled as it hit the floor. Sonic stopped. He glanced towards the living room, able to see half of Gadget and one of Tails' tails but neither of them seemed to have heard the quiet little sound. He backed up to the bedroom door, moving slowly so his sneakers wouldn't squeak or thump on the wooden boards. He'd been so sure of his theory; it didn't make sense that Gadget would try to hide a regular friend behind a weird lie about a plumber. And what would a regular friend be doing hiding in their regular friend's bedroom? Sonic smirked as he put a hand on the doorknob. His ears strained trying to pick up any further sounds but all was quiet behind the door now. He mouthed a count of three and then turned the knob and pushed the door open.

Behind the door was a normal, vacant bedroom. The bed was unmade and the light on, neither of those things being immediately suspicious since they'd caught Gadget before leaving home and his windows were boarded up. The only thing remotely out of place was the white paper bag lying sideways on the edge of the bed. Sonic leaned into the room, scrutinising the furniture, and ducked to check for anyone under the bed. He couldn't find anyone but there was something. Sonic crawled closer and reached down to retrieve the small pen-shaped object. His eyebrows rose when he turned his hand over and got a good look at it in his palm. It was a syringe, empty and with the needle capped. He stood up and peeked into the bag, finding it full of white boxes with complicated medical names and documents. The logo header for a hospital within the city was visible on the top page, the only one he could see without being too nosy. He frowned and his eyebrows furrowed. Perhaps the syringe had simply fallen out of the bag when it tipped over since an unmade bed wasn't the most stable place to leave something standing but that wasn't what disturbed him the most. There was a serious amount of medication in this bag and while he didn't recognise all of the drug names he knew one of them was a painkiller, the strong stuff that one could only get with a note from the doctor. Why did Gadget have all of this stuff?

"Sonic!" Tails called. "For the 'fastest thing alive' you sure take a long time in the bathroom!"

"One of us has to be the handsome one," Sonic called back without missing a beat. He gave the room another once over and then tossed the syringe into the bag before walking out of the room. He nudged the door as he went but didn't care if it swung fully closed. In the tiny, empty corner that the open door obscured a black jackal stood flat against the wall.

Sonic sauntered into the living room, swinging his arms casually. "I was just giving you guys some extra time to finish up."

"How considerate of you," Tails said dryly, standing by the door while Gadget put the dishes in the sink to be dealt with later. "Let's get going. Today's mission might be a hard one, that's why we thought we ought to get an early start."

"What is our mission?" Gadget asked, fastening his belt and shoulder strap as he came over to the door where the three of them convened. "I haven't been debriefed on it yet."

"It was a last minute thing," Tails explained, "Knuckles only thought of it last night."

"Knuckles' plans all have this running theme, I've noticed," Sonic quipped.

Tails rolled his eyes. "So, Knuckles and I brainstormed this idea last night that that void place that Infinite could conjure up might be some kind of special zone where the Phantom Ruby usually resides, similar to the special zone the Chaos Emeralds usually reside in, which would explain why we haven't been able to find any trace of it since the final battle."

Gadget paused while getting his keys from their belt pouch and stared at them. "Chaos Emeralds are real?"

A beat.

"Oh yeah," Sonic muttered, "I forget sometimes that regular people think they're a myth."

"They're not?"

"Nope." Sonic shook his head. "How do you think I go super?"

"I... I never thought about it too deeply. I thought that if you just collected enough of those chaos rings you'd reach a critical mass of chaos energy at some point and just... boom."

"That's half the story."

"More like a third at the most," Tails said. "As I was saying, our mission is to go back to Eggman's fortress where we saw the Phantom Ruby last and do an experiment to see if there's any credence to this hypothesis."

"Uh huh," Gadget uttered, bad memories of the cold, lifeless, neon-coloured place flashing before his eyes. He didn't want another repeat of that experience. The void was eerie. It was simultaneously so dense that breathing was difficult and his head hurt yet so vacuous he thought he'd blow up like a balloon and his flesh felt like it was boiling under his skin. Every aspect of the void warned him that he didn't belong there like an uncanny consciousness ordering him to leave or die. "Why are you so sure that it's some sort of 'special' zone?"

"It feels like the other special zone," Sonic answered this time, twisting his lips in a grimace. "It's weird; all the normal laws of the universe don't really exist there. You can't stay there long since I'm pretty sure you'd die if you did and it's like, y'know, like the zone itself is sentient and it's doing everything in its power to make you leave because you don't belong there."

"We aren't entirely sure, that's why we're conducting an experiment," Tails corrected, "but from Sonic's account of the void, there are a lot of parallels that all three of us were able to draw between it and the Chaos Emeralds' special zone."

That information awed Gadget into silence. As they stepped into the corridor and he locked the door, a thought occurred to him. "Tails, you've been into a special zone before?"

"Yeah. Me, Sonic, and Knuckles have all entered the special zone at some point, Sonic more than the rest of us."

"I see..." Gadget hummed, putting his keys away. "So, you don't think the Phantom Ruby was destroyed like we originally thought."

"No. I was surprised that Knuckles was the one to point it out to me," Tails admitted. "The Phantom Ruby had incredible powers, almost certainly comparable to the Chaos Emeralds, maybe even the Master Emerald. If any of the Emeralds are destroyed - as opposed to broken with possibility of repair - the amount of energy they release would be so cataclysmic that it could tear the planet apart, perhaps even cause dimensions to collapse. You and the two Sonics would have been obliterated in the explosion if the Phantom Ruby was truly gone."

Gadget blanched. Knowing how close he came to unwittingly annihilating himself made his stomach turn. "If it's that dangerous why is it so important that we find it? If it's lost that's best for everyone, isn't it?"

"This is peace of mind, mostly," Tails said. "If the void really is a special zone and the Phantom Ruby really is there then we don't have much to worry about. Special zones are difficult to get to, difficult to navigate, and difficult to remain in long enough to search out the powerful things that hide inside them. But if it's not, then we need to figure out where the ruby is and hide it before someone else finds it."

"Again," Sonic added ominously under his breath.

Gadget nodded. It made sense. The world was still smoking from the damage that thing had done so it was a sound policy to put it away somewhere nobody would find it. He glanced back at his door as they walked away from it, hoping Infinite hadn't overheard their goals although not entirely sure why. It wasn't like the jackal was in any position to go after them. After all, the Phantom Ruby had damaged him too.

* * *

 **A/N: So, let's play pretend. Let's pretend that Tails wasn't portrayed in Forces as a mega wimp who was so pathetic and co-dependent that he couldn't do anything if he wasn't attached at the hip to a blue hedgehog. You'll probably see at several points in this fanfic that I might make references to things that didn't actually happen or change the impression of something slightly and make it seem like Forces had a better story than what it actually had. Also, there will be more on the Chaos Emeralds in future.**


	10. Chapter 10

**It's been 10 chapters and so far none of the silly romantic fluff I was envisioning when I began has happened. I originally hoped at least one of those scenes would happen by now but it's not the case. It looks like we are all going to be here for the long haul.**

* * *

Infinite scowled at the door hanging half open, internally cursing himself for being so careless. Tossing the used up anticoagulant had unbalanced the bag and toppled it. He'd heard Sonic's whistling cease and knew that blue annoyance must have caught onto something. Now he wished he'd opted to sit through the pain in Gadget's cramped cupboard as there was nowhere else in the bedroom where he could hide. With the restrictive sternum supporter on and the drugs addling his mind he wouldn't be flexible or coordinated enough to roll under the bed. He only had one option. He'd tiptoed backwards into that tiny corner right next to the door. When it swung inwards it obscured him completely but was otherwise a terrible hiding spot. He just had to hope that Sonic wasn't suspicious enough to be thorough as he listened to the hedgehog rustling the paper bag. That fox child's call was a blessing but he didn't dare allow his silent, even breathing to falter. He counted thirty seconds under his breath after hearing the front door close and the conversation disappear behind it before he dared to move. That was far too close for his liking. If Sonic had caught him in his current state he'd be powerless against anything the blue hedgehog could throw at him.

He growled and slammed the bedroom door shut in frustration. Just when he thought the morning was taking a turn for the better it took three turns for the worse. At first Sonic and Tails had been hilarious. Infinite had leaned against the door, listening through the thin wood while he swallowed his painkillers and nearly choked on his beta blocker when their insane theory came out. Probably a good thing in hindsight because the panic of suddenly having no air supply stopped him from laughing out loud or even having to hold back sniggers. Gadget sounded out of his depth, which only made it all the more delicious up until he'd dropped his final excuse. Infinite growled just thinking about it. Afraid. Weak. A cowering waif with no face left to save, skulking in the shadows of shame. So that was how Gadget saw him now.

Hot pressure built up inside him like steam looking for even the smallest exit to funnel towards. He clenched his jaw so hard it began to ache. Unable to hold himself in, he darted to the bedside table where his mug sat empty, grabbed and pitched it at the wall across the room where it shattered so hard the pieces flew in every direction, some even hitting the ceiling. It hurt. The surgical wound in his chest felt like it was being clawed open and his hard, angry pants did nothing to stop the beast yet he felt better. The pressure had vented somewhat yet he still bubbled under the surface.

The unintended truth of it only aggravated him further. Why would a being holding the ultimate power need to hide his face behind a mask if he wasn't already a faceless humiliation? That ultimate mercenary soldier had been knocked down by a hedgehog who haughtily called himself the 'Ultimate Life Form' and ever since he'd only held onto his dignity by his teeth.

 _"Well, well, well, look who it is," the fat man mocked, turning himself around in his automatic chair. The chair had no legs, it hovered everywhere at his command and was a necessary accessory in the mad scientist's command centre. The tall room had no stairs or lifts to reach the lofts that hosted the screens and computers and without the ability to fly there was no direct way to him. Even with his capacity to leap he'd have to cross the room diagonally several times, giving away precious seconds for possible hidden defences to activate._

 _The jackal at the bottom of the room snarled. Behind him the fortified doors lay beaten and the carcasses and severed limbs of broken robots spilled inwards, hinting at the carnage that lay beyond. "You tried to kill me."_

 _"A pity I haven't succeeded yet," Dr Eggman retorted. "You were just as useless as your pathetic squad! Hopefully they'll be easier to put down once my robots have finished scouring the jungle for their worthless hides."_

 _"Worthless?" he echoed. The mere word rattled him. He crouched down for a machine gun lying by his right foot that had previously been attached to one of the robots that opposed him, hefted it onto his hip and held it steady with his left hand while his right hand yanked at the wires that pulled the trigger mechanism. Bullets flew on a straight path for the head console where Dr Eggman sat like a high and mighty emperor. They bounced against a force field that had been invisible until impacted against. They strained against the resisting field and then sprung back, raining onto the lower floor harmlessly._

 _Dr Eggman peeked between his arms that he had instinctively thrown up as a weak defence. "Aha!" he crowed, standing up with his hands balled in victory. "I knew it would work!"_

 _"Then why were you so scared it wouldn't work?" asked Cubot, oblivious to his own insubordination. Dr Eggman smacked him so hard he spun on the spot like a Ferris wheel._

 _"Quiet, fool! I designed this shield to repel anything travelling above a certain speed threshold. No speeding bullets or speeding hedgehogs will ever reach me!"_

 _"Except it uses up so much power that unless you can convince Sonic to confront you in your bases it'll never be a viable deterrent against him," Orbot pointed out. If he could drink tea he would have taken a sip by now. "Just like everything else you try against him."_

 _Eggman smacked him too and he spun like a carousel. "Shut up!"_

 _"You should be more concerned about me right now!" the jackal roared. To hell with the possible consequences. He leaped up to the closest loft. The worker bot at the station didn't even flinch as he landed and jumped straight to the next. Between the second and third ledge he was caught, stopped dead in midflight with two red-lit tractor beams that had unfolded from the wall. He swung his arms and kicked out uselessly, unable to shift beyond the narrow space where the beams crossed._

 _"Pathetic," Dr Eggman sneered. "If you were Sonic those tractors wouldn't have caught you until after the force field had considerably slowed your velocity. Even Shadow would have been faster." He sighed and shook his head. "I should have known better than to trust anyone other than myself to be able to match skills against my arch nemesis and his annoying friends. My brains are the only even match for their powers."_

 _"Then why do you always lose?" Cubot asked. Eggman smacked him again with the same effect._

 _"However, I am impressed by your spiritedness," he continued as though Cubot hadn't uttered a word, rubbing his moustache thoughtfully. "You may be the kind of subject I require for my latest invention. Yes, it could work!"_

 _He gazed down at the jackal with that wide grin that stretched from one side of his moustache to the other. His lips seemed to disappear in the presence of those teeth that appeared mad and wicked. There were many reasons why the jackal had believed this would be a job worth taking - Dr Eggman was a globally notorious terrorist who went toe-to-toe regularly with the world's most powerful warriors, of whom he'd deemed himself worthy of comparison - but this smile was clincher. In his mind Dr Eggman was simply a fat nerd hiding behind armies of soulless pawns but the cunning smile when his greatest ideas came to him had the impression of a devil scheming behind an army of demons. He appeared to be a predator with blunt teeth that would crush the fool who got too close. That was the kind of ruthless power the jackal wanted to be associated with, what he sought to achieve and in the end overcome. Yet he felt like a child, overwhelmed and terrified by the appearance of the looming monster that lived under his bed. In that moment, trapped and under the sinister scientist's mercy, he wondered how he could have been such fool to think he could ever put this man beneath him._

 _"I'm giving you this last chance to redeem yourself," Dr Eggman said. His glasses shone sinisterly. "If you are worthy enough to succeed the reward is incredible power beyond your wildest dreams."_

 _The jackal swallowed nervously. "And if I refuse to entertain your delusions of grandeur?"_

 _Dr Eggman pressed a button on a panel at the end of his armrest. Several panels at strategic points in the wall flipped open, bringing out wall-mounted rifles ready to fire at the drop of a fingertip. "Then you are trash to me."_

Infinite shuddered. Unbidden his hands grasped his arms to hug himself, seeking comfort while in solitude. In hindsight that had been his true weakest moment. Tamed by terror he submitted himself to Dr Eggman and the Phantom Ruby and in doing so exposed himself to the void.

He hated that place and knowing what it felt like personally is what gave him the most sadistic pleasure when subjecting others to it. At first the void had felt to him exactly how Sonic had described it and only got worse as things progressed. Saying that the void seemed sentient was apt as the greater his affinity for the ruby grew the more accommodating it became. It sought the ruby's power to draw in and contain but it hadn't reconciled the ruby with its attachment to his body. Leave. Don't leave. Give me your power. You are the power. The void vacillated between welcoming him fondly and tearing him apart in search of its rightful resident. Initially he'd had no control over when it would manifest in front of him but its attitude towards him mellowed over time until it eventually stopped spontaneously appearing and agreed to being summoned at will. He was the only experimental subject to get that far.

His fur stood on end so savagely it felt like it had been brushed backwards. He dropped his arms with a huff, forcing himself to stop behaving like a frightened pup haunted by bad dreams. The thought of them experimenting with the void unnerved him, if only because they were supposed to have died in there without the Phantom Ruby's power. They could still die in there if given the second chance they're looking for.

Infinite itched with adrenalin, spurring him out of the bedroom. The door slammed against the wall. He didn't care. He charged towards the end table on a mission and yanked it open so hard it nearly fell out. The coins, pens, batteries, mini torch, pieces of card, and spare U-lock jerked towards the open end. He sorted through them in a hurry. His brow furrowed and he gave another search before slamming the drawer shut and turned to the cupboard. The boxes on the top shelf had a tiny fake Christmas tree, gift-wrapping supplies, and various holiday decorations. The middle shelf had some outdoor and sports gear shoved in wherever they would fit. The largest part at the bottom housed broom, mop, vacuum cleaner, duster, and buckets full of scrubbing brushes. Crouching down with a straight torso was a chore but upon thoroughly checking the buckets he still hadn't found what he was looking for. He went out to the living room and searched through the cabinets and bookshelf and then the kitchen cupboards but it became ever clearer that there was no hope of finding it. Gadget, that infuriating goody two-shoes, must have taken the motorcycle key with him.

Infinite resigned himself with a sigh. Why was he so determined anyway? If those idiots chose to flirt with death then they could do as they pleased. He took the key from its secure place under the cuff of his glove, examining the plain silver house key with the wire ring on the end where a keychain could have hung. It wasn't lost on Infinite that the spare key was kept inside the house, instead of hidden somewhere just outside for emergencies. However, it was none of his business. He shrugged and stowed the key back under his glove. Looks like he would be going to his appointment after all. He wondered if that sick feeling he had came from side effects of the medication.


	11. Chapter 11

Infinite had no choice but to walk most of the distance to the hospital. What few busses were running had very limited options when it came to routes since many of the roads still hadn't been fixed. He kept a brisk pace through the streets, pointedly ignoring the confused eyes of other pedestrians on him. Summer was still in full force so it must have seemed odd to them to see a black anthropomorph walking the streets in a leather jacket and a tattered white scarf. No matter what they all thought of him, Infinite was not going to walk around town with his chest scar and stupid looking supporter on view for the whole world.

By the time he got to the hospital he was surprised to find that he felt drained. A trip like that should have been nothing to him but everything that had happened in the past few months had evidently taken its enormous toll. After being shunted from reception desk to reception desk until he was finally in the correct waiting room he had never been more glad to be seated in an uncomfortable plastic chair. He was on time but of course the hospital was running abysmally behind schedule, so it was in hindsight a stroke of luck that Gadget couldn't drive him to the hospital early otherwise he might have been waiting for 4 hours instead of 2.

He didn't recognise when he'd been called right away. It was only when the nurse called more insistently that he remembered that 'Mr Jackal' was him as far as the hospital knew. He put aside the sudoku puzzle he had been working on in boredom and stood up, following his ears rather than his eyes at first. When he saw the woman set to be his nurse he kept his expression schooled to neutral-bored to hide his disappointment. He'd been hoping for the cute dhole or if not him then he'd settle for the stern-looking cat who seemed to have a lot of experience and a no-nonsense attitude. Instead, of all the nurses he'd seen flitting in and out to call in patients, he got the chubby-cheeked blonde human.

"Right this way," she said to him with the flimsiness of uncertainty. She gestured into the hallway but instead of going immediately Infinite stood and stared her in the eye. It only took a second before she glanced away with a nervous chuckle. He grinned but turned away to leave the waiting room without her.

The nurse caught up and took him to a small room that was fitted for a doctor's consultation but it had no name tag on the door and was completely vacant. She was about to invite him to take a seat but he beat her to it, sitting down in one of the plastic chairs and causing her to utter a quiet noise as she dithered from one side to the other before finally settling in the doctor's chair in front of the inactive computer. She looked a bit ridiculous sitting there - a full grown human in a chair for an anthropomorph. The seat was too small for her bottom and even after adjusting the chair to its highest level her knees were still up higher than her hips.

"Hi, um, my name is Lucy," she said, flipping through papers on her blue clipboard more for something to do with her hands than to really look at them. "I'm your nurse today." Infinite raised a judgmental eyebrow at her and she gulped. "Um, so, it looks like you're just here for a check-up following your recent surgery. So, um, do you mind taking off your scarf and jacket?"

"Do I mind?" Infinite said in a low, even voice. The corner's of his lips turned up when she paled and her hands flew up in a useless defensive flail.

"Oh, well, um, I need to see the surgical wound and take some other readings so, um, you'll need to take your clothes off. Just some of them. Um, just the jacket and scarf."

Infinite's eyes narrowed as he scrutinised her, examining in the way her quivering fingers curled over her palms, her lips pressed together nervously, and her pupils dilated. He smirked in satisfaction but it was short lived, not the sort that lingered with the gratifying sense that he'd accomplished something. He took off his jacket first, throwing it over the seat of the second chair followed by his scarf. Lucy perked upon seeing what was underneath.

"Oh, um, I see you're using a sternum supporter," she remarked, happy to find some easy ground. "Do you find it's helping with, um, pain management strategies?"

Infinite stared at her. She squirmed again but he wasn't paying attention this time. He had no idea what the 'pain management strategy' was other than taking painkillers when it felt really bad nor was he aware that that was what the sternum supporter was for. He'd thought Gadget only got it because Simone said he should have it and figured it had more to do with keeping the wounded area flat so it would heal faster and better. Instead of letting any of these thoughts out, Infinite bluntly replied: "Yes."

"Oh, well, um, that's good," Lucy stammered. She'd hoped he'd give a little more than that. Feeling awkward, she quickly turned away and fumbled around the desk to bring the blood pressure monitor closer. "Well, could you take that off as well? I'll start by measuring your blood pressure."

Infinite did as he was asked and sat still while Lucy set up the digital monitor and then put the inflatable cuff around his upper arm. His eyes flicked from one focus to the next in the windowless room, glancing at the instruments and resources. The bed liner dispenser had a handwritten sign taped over it that read: 'EMPTY. Already told Luke and he's working on it.' The hand sanitiser had a similar story. As he quickly read over these lines a soft sensation on his left hand began to creep into his awareness. His gaze returned to his immediate vicinity and stared at his hand, which Lucy held gingerly and stroked soothingly, always going in the direction of his fur but her attention was completely focussed on the numbers on the monitor screen. Infinite stared at it in disbelief for a couple of seconds. He opened his mouth to say something but at that exact moment she pulled her hands away just as absentmindedly as she had been stroking to write down the readings.

"Okay, so, your blood pressure looks good and your pulse is normal," she said. She put her pencil down and loosened the cuff methodically like nothing had happened. "Okay, now can you hold this under your tongue while I listen to your chest?"

She presented the metal tip of the thermometer so close to his lips that he barely needed to move to put it under his tongue. Then she scooted up close to his side on her wheeled chair, lifting her stethoscope off her shoulders and plugging in the ear buds. Infinite's fur buffered against most of the chill from the silver disc as Lucy placed it gently on his chest just under his right collarbone to start. She spent a couple of seconds listening before lifting and moving it to the left. Her other hand gripped the back of his shoulders like she was trying to hold him in place even though he was cooperating perfectly. He stared at her out of the corner of his eyes confusedly. As the disc moved around his chest, checking his belly and sides lower down, the grip loosened until it turned into soft petting again and again Lucy didn't seem to be paying much attention. She instructed him to lean forward so she could listen to the back of his chest, standing up to get better access. Her hand left his shoulders and landed on top of his head, petting the thick, white hair.

Infinite's eyebrows creased angrily. He took the thermometer out of his mouth. "Stop petting me."

She jumped back, startled. "Wh-what?"

"You," Infinite growled, letting his lip curl back. "Stop touching me. I'm not a pet dog that you can put your hands all over whenever you feel like it."

"I-I-I-I'm sorry!" she squeaked. "S-sorry! I-I'm still n-not used to... to... you guys."

"You guys?" Infinite echoed warningly.

"I'm, um, from a veterinary clinic i-in a hu-human area," she explained, eyes darting back and forth to avoid looking at Infinite's blazing glare but she was frozen facing him, too afraid to let him out of her vision. "I-I elected to transfer here b-because I was told that, um, vets and vet nurses were n-needed but I mostly deal w-with pets, n-n-not anthropomorphs. They're, um... they're usually v-very scared and n-need comfort at the clinic."

"Do I look scared to you?" Infinite asked, rising to his full height. Hardly menacing when he was as tall as a child compared to her.

"I'm sorry! I won't pet you again!" she whimpered. "Um, I just, um... I just need to check your wound before you go. And your temperature, so, um, if you could just put that back in..."

Infinite looked at the thermometer and the barely perceptible dropping mercury. For a moment he wondered what happened to all the digital thermometers that would have been the latest and most reliable in medical technology. That tiny distraction only delayed the thought that was already creeping up on him: Gadget's face, trying to look angry but unable to chisel away the concern and disappointment because Infinite didn't complete his task for the day to keep himself in good health. That little red wolf doing everything he could to keep him comfortable, help his wounds heal, and ease his physical pain. He felt his tail wagging before even thinking about it.

He growled in frustration and willed himself to remember the words from earlier this morning. In a fit of pique he threw the thermometer aside, sending it clattering across the desk. Then he leaned over to pick the supporter up from the chair, wincing when without its restrictive guidance he put painful pressure on his breastbone.

"I gave this a chance but I don't appreciate people touching me," he growled, fastening the supporter. Watching Lucy cower in fear and shock didn't give him that lick of pleasure anymore.

"W-wait!"

Infinite ignored her, not interested in hearing her out any further. He forced her stuttering and anxious exclamations into the background noise as he left the room, putting his jacket and scarf on as he went. By the time he was back in the waiting room he was wrapped up again so his condition would be completely concealed.

He breezed through to the front doors, stepping back out into the smog-filtered sunshine and roar of the noisy chatter and rumbling vehicle engines of the street. Pausing for a moment, he scanned the surroundings. The car park was tucked away underground but a few metres outside the door a large bitumen cul-de-sac and service road had been carved out for public transport, drop-offs, and a taxi rank. An ambulance screamed down the service road much faster than was safe and rolled up a ramp at the end with a sign above telling all drivers that the parking garage beyond the ramp was for 'PATIENT TRANSPORT ONLY'.

Infinite breathed deeply, so used to the smell and feel of smoke and ash that the copious smokers ignoring big red 'NO SMOKING' signs didn't bother his lungs. He shoved his hands in his jacket pockets and closed his eyes for a contemplative moment before walking on. He only got three steps when something huge suddenly dropped down in front of him. It was so heavy the paving beneath its sturdy black feet cracked and crushed and several pedestrians around it, including Infinite himself, were bounced off their feet against their volition. His gaze panned upwards in dread. The shape of the cleft metal feet with that flash of fluorescent green between the toes gave the assailant away. Nonetheless, Infinite still felt more comfortable looking into the backlit eyes of the red and black robot standing in his way. White titanium alloy claws folded back into the large arms to make room for machine gun barrels to spring out and take aim at the black jackal in point blank range.

"Enemy unit sighted," E-123 Omega declared as his gears whirred. "Prepare for annihilation."


	12. Chapter 12

**I'm sorry this update came out so late. The reason for this being that over the past few weeks I needed to get a new computer because my old one decided to have it's second major failure within a six month period and this chapter (as well as many other documents) didn't have a back-up. So I had to extract the hard drive from my old computer and fight it to make it give back all my documents. Nearly everything else had a recent enough back-up version that I was happy with so once I got the writing back it was a much smoother recovery from there. So, things should be more or less back to normal now.**

* * *

Infinite turned and ran back to the only place he knew he could possibly stand any chance of surviving this: back into the hospital. Behind him Omega opened fire. He'd only had a second head start on the machine guns but it was enough to charge back into the foyer. The sound of glass smashing and crashing and people screaming as they ducked and scrambled to get out of the way matched the continuous blasts of automatic fire. Nothing stood out clearly in the cacophony, all sounds blended into a chaotic backdrop of noise. Infinite vaulted over the reception desk, nearly catching his ankle on the edge. His chest felt all forms of pain at once and though it was for now contained to his upper torso the severity of it made his limbs weak and wobbly. He dumped himself on the floor right in front of the pair of volunteer receptionists hiding under the desk. They stared in shell-shocked horror looking in his direction but not really looking at him, as useless as wet, starving kittens picked up from the side of the footpath.

The gunfire abruptly ceased, allowing him to hear the rattling sound of his own wheezing like stones in his throat. The screaming got fainter as those that were able to run got farther away, leaving behind anyone already injured or trapped in fear of the metal beast at the door, crying, whimpering, and praying. Infinite clenched his teeth so hard his lips curled back against his will, trying to mute the voices in his ears but they wouldn't go away this time. Every pathetic noise pierced his eardrums and made his fur stand on end. Only a few months ago he would have welcomed the involuntary expressions of fear from those too weak to stand against him but right now he only felt chills.

"Infinite, in the interest of keeping collateral damage to a minimum, I strongly recommend that you come out where I can shoot you with no interference," Omega announced loudly. "Collateral damage restrictions interfering with mission success. Attempt override. Override rejected."

At the mention of his name the two receptionists began to shiver. The male badger looked like he was going to be ill while the female mouse curled up and rocked, murmuring comfortingly to herself, though neither of them seemed to be aware that the man Omega was looking for was right in front of them. Infinite felt nauseous himself. He wanted to get up and flee from this place but every movement he attempted was rejected. His tendons tightened and muscles seized up, begging him not to go anywhere with all of the pain holding him down like an anvil tied to his chest. It felt wrong. This wasn't where he belonged. He should have been leading an empire alongside a mad scientist with the greatest of all powers at his fingertips but instead he was dropped at the bottom of the pit sharing company with all the rest who had no control over their destinies. Fighting for their lives was meaningless—they had no power to choose.

Omega's visual sensors switched continuously from one form to another – heat, x-ray, echo, chaos energy. None seemed able to pick up any abnormality that would delineate Infinite from the rest of the civilians. His CPU hummed, working hard to model as many scenarios as possible. Though he had seen where Infinite had disappeared to, he could also tell that there was more than one lifeform hidden behind that desk and even though most of the occupants of the building's foyer had cleared out any damage to the building could put the remainders at risk. His circuits whizzed, summoning all past data including that from the most recent global war; how much damage had been done and how easily he had suffered a crushing defeat. That finally balanced the equations somewhat, unlocking his access to his own weapons. Omega's chest plates opened, revealing rows of compact missiles.

"Infinite, you will be awarded a further 10 seconds to surrender yourself to the resistance." As he said that the missile launchers were already warming up.

Infinite closed his eyes. He already felt like he was in hell, he might as well be dead. The seconds he had left stretched like eternities and behind his eyelids he saw his life speed by like he was walking through it in slow motion. Clear details only came back in glimpses, for the most part he only saw vague blurs of flames and ash, desert sands, blood, and glints of steel blades and bullet shells. His whole life a parade that marched him straight to hell.

Time was up without any announcement. Omega let loose just one missile. That would be just enough to end the jackal in his current state, hopefully. Infinite heard the bang of the rocket and his ears folded back against his head in fear.

One second passed, then two. It was a second too long. Infinite opened his eyes but while he was still too weak to move he wouldn't be able to look over the desk and find out what had happened. His vision pulsed, blacking out to nothing.

Omega's visual sensors paused, momentarily off-guard when his missile stopped in mid-air, caught in a cyan glow. He turned his head around and adjusted his sensor for a colour image of the white hedgehog floating behind him.

"Omega! What is the meaning of this?!" Silver demanded.

"Infinite – the associate of Dr Eggman – has been sighted," Omega answered directly. "I engaged in combat to eliminate the threat."

"Right now, the only threat is you! Don't you see that this is a hospital?! If you destroy this building what'll happen to all the people here trying to recover? What if someone needs the facilities?"

"I have already calculated collateral values. The damage Infinite can cause outweighs minor damage to one hospital. The preventative gains outweigh the potential loss of life and infrastructure damage."

"How can you say that? We told you—it was discussed! Infinite is too sick to be a threat right now. Knuckles explicitly told you that killing him wasn't on our cards."

"View also expressed at meeting: Infinite may have another method of acquiring the Phantom Ruby's power. The longer he remains at large and not under our direct supervision the more plausible this possibility becomes. If our current commander will not devote resources to this cause then the only sensible option is an elimination. Recent programming upgrades preventing mission success. Attempt override. Override rejected."

Silver sighed deeply. "Tails is gonna need to take a long, hard look at your circuits," he said. Behind Omega the missile turned on the spot, putting the robot that shot it in its crosshairs unknown to the robot itself. "But for the time being I can't stand here and let you rampage against an incapacitated enemy when there are innocent people in the crossfire."

He released the missile with the same incredible velocity that it had been fired with. Omega's proximity sensors beeped in warning but at such close range there was no time to set up an adequate shield or dodge it completely. It exploded on impact. The building shook. Glass, brick, and steel flew in jagged chunks from the decimated entranceway out onto the deserted road outside. Silver hovered outside with his hand over his muzzle, not expecting the missile to create such a large plume of smoke. He stayed up in the air, waiting for the smoke to clear so that he could lift Omega with his powers and tow him back to base. He thought all he would have to do is wait.

Suddenly three missiles emerged with a swirl of smoke, homing in on him. Silver barely caught them in time, stopping them only inches from impact. Omega marched heavily out of the smoke cover, his upper body slightly dented and scorched but otherwise undamaged.

"What? Barely a scratch!?" Silver exclaimed.

"I am built to be resistant to the types of ammunition I carry, which are superior to all other ammunition models," Omega stated. "This is one of many reasons that I am the ultimate robot. You will not defeat me with my own arsenal. Do not stand between me and Infinite's extermination or I will eliminate you as well."

Omega raised his machine gun arm to fire. Silver redirected the missiles upwards and collided them with each other. They detonated out of harm's way and freed his concentration to catch the multitude of bullets shooting towards him. He would never be able to outrun them, he was no Sonic, after all. But while he held the bullets at bay Omega's jets boosted him towards Silver. Silver turned the bullets back on Omega but they merely glanced off the armour and one of Omega's arms lashed out with a fist that hit like a battering ram. It sent Silver flying into the building across the road, hitting the reinforced concrete so hard it cracked and left his imprint behind. He groaned, finding himself unable to keep his own head balanced. His brain felt like it had melted into nothing but water and sloshed about the inner walls of his cranium. His body peeled off the wall by the force of his own weight but he didn't fall far before he was caught in Omega's steel grip. The wrist joint whirred as it twisted to put him upright so that he could look Omega in his soulless red eyes.

"You will not interfere with my mission to destroy Infinite," Omega commanded. "Confirm your comprehension of this directive."

"I… I'm not…" Silver began, temples aching, "not letting you… destroy the h-hospital… j-just to get… at Infinite."

"Then I will eliminate you," Omega said, turning his other hand into a machine gun and pointing it in Silver's face. Silver stared down the barrels defiantly.

"Yeah, there's still a lot of work we need to do on you," Silver murmured.

The shots never came. All of Omega's mechanical systems jammed as his entire body was engulfed in cyan. His digits uncurled one at a time, easily pried against his will, setting Silver free. The white hedgehog floated backwards to be out of easy arm's reach, even though Omega was completely immobile now.

"ERROR. Systems not responding. ERROR. Systems not responding."

Silver brought his hands together like he was squeezing an invisible balloon. Omega twitched and spasmed. The rigid parts fought valiantly but squealed and groaned under an intense psychic pressure. The chassis began to buckle and the vulnerable limb joints were starting to bend.

"This will not stop me," Omega boasted. "My armour is built to withstand immense pressure the likes of which your puny mind cannot replicate."

Silver didn't rise to the bait, trying to keep his concentration but knowing that he turned to a different counter. With scream he pulled his hands apart, tearing out the pressure and energy he was using up trying to crush his rogue ally. A great _BOOM_ came from Omega. His armour dented outwards in ugly lumps and sparks and flames erupted through the gaps as though every piece of ammunition in his body had detonated at once. The lights in his eyes blinked.

"ERROR. MAJOR SYSTEM FAILURE. ERROR. MAJOR SYSTEM FAILURE."

Omega dropped right out of the air and crash landed. His body was so heavy that the crater he made tore up the road from one footpath to the other. He continued bleating out that error message while his head rocked back and forth erratically and his limbs twitched. Silver lowered himself back to earth. As soon as his feet hit solid ground his knees wobbled. He allowed himself to collapse for a breather. His head pounded so hard it drummed in his ears and he felt as though his eyeballs would be knocked out by the pulsating. Through sore, clogged ears he could still hear the sirens wailing around the corners from both sides of the street.

"They couldn't get here faster than me, that's pretty slow," he panted, smiling at his own joke. The police bikes and fire engine paid him no heed while they set themselves up to properly cordon off the street and put out the flames still lingering in the building. Silver watched them, clutching his head in pain. "I hope everyone in there will be okay."


	13. Chapter 13

**Hey, sorry for making you wait this long for this chapter. I struggled with it a little and even then I'm not sure how much I like how it turned out. It feels a bit incomplete and I've tried to rationalise this to myself by saying that this is because - due to not having any sort of plan other than snippets and scenes in my head - I'm trying to lay some more pieces of groundwork for stuff that will come up later. I'm also keeping chapters to a restricted length so stuff that I would have written at the end is going to end up in the beginning of the next chapter. Please help me out by letting me know what you think.**

* * *

Gadget wondered how Sonic and Tails could keep the pace that they did. After hours of running around Dr Eggman's expansive former fortress they still walked into the resistance headquarters like they had energy to burn while he was puffing and trying to keep up with their energetic strides. To go at the speed of sound mission by mission was one thing, to go all day was inhuman. They strode ahead into the main computer room with him trudging behind them, daydreaming of being able to soak his aching body in the bath tonight.

"Shadow! Where were you?!"

Sonic froze mid-step. Gadget stared at him curiously, noticing the tenseness in his shoulders and the slight bristling of his back spines. Sonic turned sharply with an irritated look on his face and he opened his mouth like he was about to berate the speaker and then abruptly aborted that motion. Shadow was there in the room. So was Silver, standing in front of him with an icepack in one hand and the broken husk of Omega behind them.

"What happened to Omega?" Tails gasped, rushing over to the other two hedgehogs. He got between them and pushed them aside to stand in front of the war robot, gazing up at it in disbelief as though someone had torn up his artwork. "I worked so hard to get him back up and running. Who could have done this?"

Tails turned to Shadow. The black hedgehog's eyes narrowed irritably at the stink-eye being sent his way. "I don't know what happened," he said, folding his arms standoffishly. "I also just got here."

"I did it," Silver admitted, looking as vexed as he possibly could with unfocussed eyes.

"You?" Tails gaped, turning to Silver in surprise. "Why?"

"He went on a rampage at a local hospital. He's still keen on his self-appointed mission to get revenge on Infinite. With death. Lots of death."

"Why is a battle robot of Omega's calibre in the streets to begin with?" Shadow asked critically.

"He wasn't," Tails answered. "At least he shouldn't have been. Knuckles was going to send him off to do another search and destroy mission for robots in the countryside. They're still popping up every now and then. With orders like that, what made him want to attack a hospital?"

"Omega doesn't take orders he doesn't like," Shadow replied.

"He's a robot. He _has_ to fulfil his orders, whether he likes them or not. Or at the very least follow his programming."

"He's not a normal robot. There's a reason why Dr Eggman never built another robot like Omega. The AI he's outfitted with is one of a kind but it's so advanced that it is able to rewrite its own programming, which allowed him to become insubordinate to Dr Eggman. He has likely twisted his orders such that he gave himself the freedom to fulfil the goals that he wants, not the goals we need him to meet."

"That's terrible!" Silver exclaimed. "Why do we keep an awful robot like that around?"

"He does have a few problems," Tails conceded, "but he's growing and he does grow on you after a while. With a little hard work we may be able to help him develop a conscience yet."

"What about the hospital?" Sonic interjected. His body went taut like a spring, ready to zip off.

"It's not on fire anymore," Silver replied. "Part of the building might still be structurally unsound and some people were injured in the attack but not fatally so. That's a good outcome, all things considering…"

"Still, though," Tails muttered, "why attack a hospital?"

"It's the hospital where I dropped off Infinite a couple of weeks ago."

Gadget hadn't properly fully processed those words when a sharp breeze blew by him to the exit and Sonic was gone. It distracted him for a moment, in which he stared at Silver dumbly until realisation had his fur rising in agitation. The other three continued talking and Gadget heard their voices but the clarity of their words blotted out as he turned and ran, hot on the Blue Blur's trail and hoping that when he left that morning Infinite had taken advantage of the lack of supervision to not cooperate with his doctor's orders.

* * *

The first thing Infinite saw when he began to wake up was white. Just white. He must have been dead this time for sure—the last events he remembered were so non-conducive to his survival that he couldn't imagine any other possibility. His vision blurred, too weak to focus at first but as he regained awareness he couldn't be bothered to work his eyes into clarity. He couldn't stand to look at the world and his eyes must have suffered somehow in the attack, is what he told himself of the stinging pain around his eyeballs. He blinked and dispelled the blurs with a few shakes. It took considerable effort to shift his head even slightly from one side to another. On his left he saw white wires squiggling away from his body, connected to machines with readings rising and falling sluggishly. Each breath he took strained against the gentle constriction of a bandage around his chest and made a humid chamber out of an oxygen mask. The tendons in his neck felt so taut that they might break as he lifted his head to survey the rest of the room only to find that it was cordoned off with a green curtain. A sick sense of déjà vu came over him and he let his head fall back onto the pillow. A sinking feeling washed over him as he wondered about Gadget and the void and, subsequently, the Phantom Ruby. His heart stung thinking about him but he refused to think too deeply about that. It was probably just the god of death anyway, cutting his heart out in preparation for judgement. It was a whimsical hunch that urged him to turn his head to the right, despite how difficult it was and how his brain jiggled in his skull with even the slightest movement. He remembered there being a table. Would it still be there in this afterlife reconstruction?

A pair of horn-rimmed glasses with thick lenses looked back at him, sitting on the table as innocuously as he remembered. The very air around him became oppressive, clogging his ears and nose and stuffing his throat as a powerful tide of despair ripped him under. He tried to move, reaching for the glasses. Later on, he would have no idea what compelled him to think or do what he did given how difficult even the smallest of movements was. His very veins tried to prevent him, as though he had mortar instead of blood pumping through his heart. Every muscle under his skin felt like it had turned to wire, or rather that wires had been pushed carefully into every muscle fibre and still stung. He'd just had a thought that wholly convinced him that if only he were able to see through those glasses he might glimpse Gadget lying in this purgatory with him to await the weighing of his own heart.

Putting the glasses on made his vision blurry again. His head lolled to the side; he was so exhausted he could barely lift it properly. Even with the lenses on the area around the bed was nothing but whites and greens but he kept looking for even the smallest splash of red. He found it, leaning his head back and looking upwards. The red hung above him like a tiny sun or maybe a bomb (or both. Dr Eggman had once fancied that a sun would make a fantastic bomb) with a leak in its system. It drooled seamlessly like a river down the side of some invisible mountain but instead of reaching some sort of estuary or delta the river curled into his left arm. He raised his arm as much as he could and the red river moved with it, plugged into him with a white patch that reminded him of several memories that he couldn't quite grasp.

A gentle snuffle beside him followed by a yawn interrupted his thoughts. Infinite let his arm fall and turned to find the source of the sound but it was all green and white. He lay in wait until it appeared, a red being rising like the setting sun in reverse and peering over him with wide, white eyes.

"You're awake," it muttered.

"Are you Death?" Infinite asked.

The red thing stared at him for beat. And then: "What?"

"You've come to take my heart. I didn't deserve it in the end."

"I'm not… you're… where do you think you are?" the red thing finally settled on.

"Somewhere west of the setting sun. Just hurry up and cut it out. Would you tell me how much it weighs?"

"No, I'm not going to cut out your heart, I'm not qualified to do that. You've got to stop wearing my glasses, they must make you see strange things. And I need them besides."

The red creature reached over but Infinite did nothing to stop it. It took hold of the frames and lifted the glasses off his face. Without them he saw much clearer and once the red wolf had his glasses back on his own face he smiled a forced smile back at Infinite trying to tell him that everything was okay but his eyes were sad and frightened.

"Oh…" Infinite choked. It was not a sob. No. "You look spirited."

Gadget chuckled half-heartedly. "I wish I could say the same for you. You look like death warmed over."

"Yours must be light. That's why you can stand there while I can barely move."

There was a long silence after that. Gadget wasn't quite sure how to respond or what Infinite was referring to that had something to do with cutting out hearts and weighing them. It sounded like a brutal ritual. He was beginning to think that perhaps he could just ask about it until Infinite spoke again:

"I'm thirsty."

"Yeah, I'd say so," Gadget nodded. "That's just a side effect of the medication they used during surgery. They gave you fluids intravenously but it's probably been almost a day since you last drank anything. I can go and ask the doctors if it's okay to give you water now."

"I haven't felt this thirsty in years," Infinite continued as if Gadget hadn't said anything. "Why have you brought my soul back to that town?"

"That town?" Gadget echoed curiously.

"The town without water… where I grew up."

"Er, I can't say I've heard of it."

"I heard that there used to be wells there but they were dried up long before I was born. There were some small occasions when it would rain but I don't really remember. The drought began when I was a youngling. They hoped it would only last the one season but the rains never came back and the water stores ran empty. There were water-storing plants that people used to talk about but taking a trip out of town to get to them was dangerous. If you didn't die from the sun before you reached one it might poison you with its toxin. Water and food cost more money than most people had but I learned a lot of tricks to help deal with being thirsty—suck on stones to swallow your own saliva, steal fruit from the gardens over the wall, kill your enemies and drink their blood-"

"Excuse me, what?"

"What ever worked."

"You're joking. Please tell me you're joking about what you just said."

"You lived or died depending on what you were prepared to do to survive. In the end, I was prepared to leave but I knew it wouldn't be easy to make it across the desert alone when there was no food or water in town, except what was there over the wall. It was by a weird coincidence that I met a man who was willing to ship me out of town for an immaterial cost, for which I had to kill him. Is this what you wanted me to confess? My first sins on this earth, beginning with me being born in that wretched place?"

"Infinite…" Gadget croaked. His throat felt dry and tight all of a sudden. It was almost too sensational of a story to believe but then again, so was the scale and devastation that the world had endured only a few months ago. The intensity of it made him tremble, as well as a niggling fear that once Infinite sobered up – if he remembered any of this – he would be mortified by the vulnerabilities he had just blurted out here, probably without consciously meaning to.

Infinite sighed. "Can't even have my real name back. I suppose that's fair."

"Inf—I mean…" Gadget stammered, not quite sure what he actually meant. He could probably get Infinite to reveal it right here and now but a part of him felt that that would be as good as using him. He resigned himself to being swayed by his better nature. "You just rest, focus on getting better." He put a hand on Infinite's wrist, stroking the fur in a way he hoped the jackal would find soothing. "I'll be back later."

"Don't leave me!"

Gadget's eyes widened, startled not only by the high-pitched desperation in Infinite's voice but also by the speed at which he twisted his hand around to grasp his wrist. He whimpered.

"Don't leave me alone to stew in my sins, taking on the weight of all the souls in my path. I don't want this! I'll go to hell without trial, just don't make me do this!"

"Whoa, whoa! It's okay; you're okay," Gadget tried to soothe him while gently prying his hand off his wrist. "You're not going to hell, you're not even dead yet."

"I won't take them with me!"

With his hand forcibly freed, Infinite reached across himself for the catheter dripping blood into his left arm. Gadget's ears flattened and he quickly lashed out to pin it down against Infinite's torso.

"Don't pull that out! It's helping you!"

"I'm beyond help! You can drown me in the river of fire until my flesh melts off my bones and my skeleton crumbles to ashes!"

Though Infinite was weak he began to squirm restlessly and fluffy fur became slippery with the twisting and writhing. Gadget threw himself over Infinite's body to hold him down and keep both arms at his sides. In front of him the numbers and lines on the monitoring screens rose worryingly, the ECG made a sudden jump. Gadget turned to Infinite, hoping to see some semblance of sanity return but he had his head tilted back, betraying nothing about his expression. The wolf raised a boot, blindly kicking around beside the bed for the nurse call button that he vaguely remembered hanging from the bedframe on the right-hand side. He turned his head away to face the curtain, finding it all too frightening to look at the life monitoring equipment or Infinite's face in the midst of the fit. His heart thudded so hard he was sure that it was the reason he was trembling while seconds felt like minutes, making him wonder several times over how long it could take even just one nurse to respond. He didn't hear footsteps arrive but the rattle of the curtain was loud enough to alert him to the arrival of medical help. The bear nurse yanked him off Infinite and dropped him to the floor with seemingly no care as to whether he even landed on his feet or not and then with a single motion, honed by years of practise, grabbed Infinite's arms and had him restrained on his back with his arms by his sides.

Gadget rose to his feet and brushed his fur down, looking at Infinite sadly. The nurse spoke to him firmly, trying to get him to answer simple questions. With a resigned sigh Gadget realised that there was probably nothing else that he could do right now, so he left, drawing the curtain completely closed behind him. It was the only mercy he could offer in this semi-public ward, however small.

On his way out, every part of him drooped as though he were walking towards some sort of despair. Despite the bustle of the hospital at work around him, his footsteps sounded lonely to his ears as he stepped out of the ward and into the corridor about to face the inevitable trial that he'd been putting off for the past two weeks.


	14. Chapter 14

**I had hoped to get this done by last weekend and I almost did. I wrote pretty much the whole chapter longhand while on holiday so that I'd have something to put up by Sunday but then I was sick _and_ had work and sick + work = I don't have the energy to type up the draft. But today was a public holiday, so I rested a bit and then got it done. Not my best chapter, I don't think, but I'm inching towards a scene I'm looking forwards to writing, either in the next chapter or the one right after.  
**

* * *

The hospital beds and wards were crowded but the waiting rooms were not. Since the morning's disaster the hospital had stopped admitting new patients for the time being. Sonic was the only person sitting in the waiting room on a plastic chair at the end of a row, elbows on his knees and deep in thought as he stared at the floor between his feet. Gadget slowly approached him, wishing the thick soles of his boots didn't thud so loudly against the linoleum floor with every step but Sonic didn't look up.

"How's things?" he asked with a damp tone that did no justice whatsoever to the casual inquiry. Gadget's ear twitched and he cocked his head to the side. It didn't escape him that Sonic seemed to be avoiding acknowledging Infinite.

"Technically, I think he's fine," Gadget replied. "I mean, at least with the physical healing. Mentally, he's not doing so good…"

Gadget stood while Sonic sat. Neither of them spoke until Gadget elaborated: "he thinks he's dead."

Sonic finally looked up, raising an eyebrow in a silent question for him to go on.

"He thinks he's in the afterlife or something. He was asking me to cut out his heart and judge his sins and all that." Sonic stifled a chuckle. "Does that sound familiar to you?"

"Yeah," Sonic said, smiling in spite of himself. "Sounds similar to something I heard in the past on another continent. So, he's from far away then," he said with a tone of wistful observation.

Gadget frowned. "What's funny about that?"

Sonic's smile fell. The two of them were in silence again for several minutes – Gadget was surprised Sonic could last that long without talking, running, or breaking something. As the lengthy silence began to feel awkward for him he pressed his fingertips together, starting to think that maybe he should bring up his own confession but then Sonic piped up:

"I shouldn't have come here."

Gadget blinked. "Then why did you?"

"I was scared," Sonic answered quickly, as if worried that any delay would dry up his courage. "I wasn't sure what I'd see here. I didn't believe that Omega would do what he did without a good reason since he's one of us now and he was so badly damaged I was convinced there had been a fight between him and Infinite. Guess I should have put more faith in Silver's abilities. I thought that, maybe, it had been a mistake to leave Infinite behind when taking Omega back because that put everyone else here in danger. I was prepared to fight here. I didn't have any inkling of a thought that someone so strong could ever be rendered so weak."

Gadget swallowed. It tingled going down his throat and it felt raw. Once again, he considered opening his mouth to speak. He got that far before Sonic interrupted: "Infinite is your guest, isn't he?"

Gadget lost control of his jaw and it hung open in disbelief. His eyes went wide and fearful.

"When were you planning to tell us?"

"Um… just now?"

Sonic snorted with restrained laughter. "Really, kid?"

"I honestly did intend to come clean a while ago but it just got away from me and… I'm just making excuses now." Gadget lowered his head, ears drooping. "I didn't say sooner because… I don't know, I guess I was scared too. I thought that maybe you would try to attack him and I didn't want you to imprison him because I thought that would mean that I didn't get to look after him. He's really sick."

"You know, you're part of the resistance," Sonic reminded him. "If you asked we might've just put you in charge of him."

"Would you? Because it didn't feel that way."

"Whaddya mean?"

"It sounded like everyone was in favour of a more 'hands off' option."

Sonic nodded understandingly. "Still, though, you could have said something to me and Tails."

"Well… you two were the hardest hit among us. You don't have to pretend that it would be easy to accept, I know that what I'm trying to do here is dangerous and Infinite was probably one of the greatest enemies you ever had to face. I think that's why I refused to let you all know. I wanted to act on my own conscience by myself without people telling me what I should be thinking about him."

"And 'cause he's kinda cute?"

Gadget threw his hands up and waved them defensively as he stuttered and spluttered, making Sonic laugh out loud. "No! It's not like that! No, no, no!"

"I'm kidding, Rookie! Chill!" Sonic giggled. "Seriously, though, I get where you're coming from. Sometimes you just wanna show people what you're really made of but you've gotta have the right opportunity. Like, it's great and all to fight in a war and be a badass at kicking ro-butts but if that's not what you want people to think about you then you've gotta find something else."

"Yeah, something like that…"

"So then what's your end goal? You gotta have something to show so the rest of us can see the fruits of all your good work and the part of you that you're most proud of instead of what you're forced to be by circumstances. And if a bad guy goes good in the process then that's only a good thing, yeah?"

"Yeah," Gadget said with a melting kind of voice. He blinked and immediately tried to swallow it back, realising how adoring it sounded. More silence followed, which became awkward even quicker than the last. Gadget fidgeted but Sonic didn't react to his utterance or the tone of it. When he did finally speak it was for a slight change of subject.

"Why did you think there was some good in him deep down?"

Gadget's hands froze where they had been wringing. For the time being he didn't have any sort of answer to this. The question blew his mind a little bit, even if it was only because of a small implication about the blue hero. "You didn't?"

"I tried to, but it's so hard with him." Sonic shook his head. "He doesn't give anything away. I mean, with Eggman sometimes I imagine that if he ever gave up being a supervillain he'd just be a funny old man who made toys and fun park rides and would just generally do things that made other people smile. He always comes up with these rollercoaster bases and funny personalities for his robots even though he doesn't have to and it's really hard to totally hate a guy who has that much childish creativity with no qualms about what anyone thinks about his ideas. But with Infinite I couldn't ever see anything other than pleasure in destruction and amusement in killing and no matter how hard I try I can't make any other idea stick. So, what gave you the idea?"

Gadget spent a while ruminating on that. When he finally began to answer he still wasn't sure that he was quite ready to. "I, well… it just seemed so empty, you know. Like, that's how a monster acts, not a man. And he was just so… hurt. It's totally sad seeing someone like that and… if he can't hurt anyone anymore then he has to learn to live without hurt and pain, like, learning to live peacefully."

For a long time afterwards Sonic just stared at him hard, hands clasped between his knees and his brow furrowed. It caused Gadget to squirm and return to fidgeting for a while. Then Sonic smiled brightly without warning.

"You really are something else, Rookie." He bounced to his feet. "Glad we had this talk and I'm glad you could be here. It means a lot to me, y'know, that somebody can pick up the slack on being the good guy when I can't."

Gadget blushed, touched yet caught out by the praise. He rubbed the fur at the back of his head coyly. "It's, er, no biggie."

As a matter of fact, he knew it was actually a huge biggie. Sonic – the people's hero all the world over – was thanking _him_ for being a hero. The height of the honour made him dizzy.

"W-well," he began, trying not to melt into a squirming goo, "we should probably get back to base."

"Yeah, it'll be a good idea for you to get some proper rest," Sonic said, stretching as though he was about to run. "Better yet, you should just go home and avoid the Knuckles-storm with Vector-force winds all whirling under a Shadow-pressure system at all costs. At least until it dies down. They're pretty mad about this turn of events."

"That's tempting but I ought to come clean to them too. At the very least it'll get this off my conscience."

"I'm proud to have fought side-by-side with a brave man like you," Sonic performed dramatically like they were in a wartime melodrama. He gave Gadget a two-fingered salute before the two began to walk. Gadget's ears pricked in surprise when he noticed that while he was walking to the exit, Sonic was going in the opposite direction, back to the ward.

"Um, aren't you coming?"

Sonic paused and then turned to look at him. Then he snapped his fingers. "Right! You were still kinda preoccupied when this happened. Basically, this strict human vet wouldn't let us move Infinite no matter how hysterically we cried 'don't you know who we are?!' so Knuckles has us rostered to take turns watching over him at his bed. You got the first shift by default and—you know what? Maybe you should stop by the base and set the record straight with everyone else. There are a couple of so-called good guys who need some encouragement to not strangle a black jackal in his sleep."

Gadget's stomach dropped. That was not what he wanted to hear. Gulping nervously, he turned to jog out of the hospital and once outside he fired his grappling hook to shoot off quickly across the street. Infinite was in safe hands for now but he had to make sure things stayed that way.

* * *

"GADGET!" Knuckles roared. He was so quick that Gadget wasn't sure how he knew it was him coming through the door. However, that was a minor concern to the big issue. Knuckles must have been inconsolably furious since this was the first time Gadget had ever heard the leader say his real name.

It was another whole team meeting. Everyone was present sans Sonic and all with a heightened level of agitation. Silver was still having difficulty seeing straight while he sat on a crate chewing the ends of his gloves. Rouge and Espio were deceptively calm, holding a pose with their arms folded that they barely moved from. Everyone gave Vector a wide berth since his tail was whipping back and forth and Amy paced backwards and forwards, sighing and moaning. Tails and Charmy were both on the ground – surprisingly, in Charmy's case – with their flying appendages twitching while Shadow stood in the darkest shadow near the back as usual. He didn't appear any different but Gadget could swear there was some gloomy aura spilling off him in waves that made the black in his fur seem darker and the red have a brightly demonic glow to it while his eyes burned.

"Give us the low-down," Knuckles demanded, stomping up to Gadget with a steel-eyed glare. "What's the current scoop with Infinite? I want to hear anything of significance, no matter how insignificant!"

Gadget stared back at him, sweating bullets. "Wh-why me?"

"Because you were just there in the hospital room with him!"

"Oh…" Gadget sighed. Then he gulped and straightened up rigidly, realising he was still technically in hot water. "Well, he's not that great…"

"Is he dying?" Vector blurted out a bit too eagerly.

"No! He's not dying, he just thinks he is. He's still receiving blood transfusions and drugs to keep him sedate while he heals but otherwise it looks like he's going to recover."

Vector growled in frustration. Knuckles folded his arms, looking down at the floor while he considered what to do but the others weren't going to let that happen quietly.

"What do we do now?" Charmy asked. His wings buzzed anxiously.

"If we are as complacent as we have been it's possible more conflicts like this recent one will break out," Espio pointed out. "Our containment plan needs to be properly outlined now so it can be finalised by the time he's discharged."

"Tails' plan from the last meeting was pretty good," Amy suggested.

"You shot it down back then," Tails recalled.

"But I thought about it since then and it's not like Dr Eggman has ever pulled a trick or trap that we couldn't overcome, especially not with Sonic on our side."

"Until Infinite," Rouge muttered.

Amy pouted at her, placing her fists on her hips. "And who was supposed to be keeping any eye out to make sure stuff like this didn't happen?"

"I can't be on a communications mission and keep a 24/7 eye on the Masked Grimdark!" Rouge snapped. "So many people are stuck in communication blind spots and you are supposedly our communications officer."

"People don't tally themselves! I'm swamped trying to keep track of who's been identified and who's not! Which really should have been others' responsibility." Amy turned a stink-eye towards the Chaotix.

"We're far too busy doing all the legwork!" Vector protested. "And besides, record-keeping is Espio's role in the agency."

Espio sighed and pinched the base of his horn. "Let's stop blaming others for the current shortfalls. We're all in over out heads with the work we need to do." He also muttered under his breath, "but for the record, no one in Chaotix is _specifically_ in charge of record-keeping."

"True," Knuckles nodded, "but I still expected better intel instead of the 'unsecure, undisclosed' location Rouge came up with."

"I told you, I had it supervised by another member of the resistance," Rouge growled. "And he was weak. There was nothing urgent we needed to do. Don't involve yourself in the petty blame game too – it's unbecoming of a leader."

Gadget's ears flickered in interest. Throughout this discussion and for the past day he'd been wondering something and now he had a hook to bring it up. "What exactly did Infinite do to Omega?"

The others all stared at him. He adjusted his glasses as he shrank under their gazes. "I mean… you said he was weak and Omega is crazy powerful, so how did he cause so much damage?"

The eyes turned to Silver. He pulled his glove out of his mouth and his expression went from worried to annoyed. "I told you all, _I_ defeated Omega, not Infinite. Come to think of it, I didn't even see the guy when I was fighting. I only responded to the emergency call that came up on the computer. I had no idea he was even there or that we were expecting him to be based on Rouge's intel until after I'd confronted Omega."

"So… does that mean he's not a threat anymore?" Charmy asked hopefully.

"For now…" Knuckles answered cautiously. He glanced around and his eyes fell on Gadget. He raised an eyebrow. "What are you so happy about?"

Gadget started and covered his mouth. He hadn't realised the smile had crept up on his face. His eyes darted back and forth to all of the faces staring at him again with a questioning look, save for Rouge, who snickered delicately behind her fingers and Shadow whose angry expression may have become permanent by now.

"Um, I'm just glad nobody died, is all," Gadget chuckled nervously. The eyes were still on him his various degrees of disbelieving him. He gulped and then took a deep breath. "And I'm glad Infinite is okay because I've been the one taking care of him for the past two weeks."

The eyes all went wide and jaws dropped. Even Shadow's eyes bugged out but the hard set of his jaw, teeth visibly clenching, and his fingers digging into his arms betrayed how much angrier he was to hear this. Gadget rubbed his own arm, tail ducking between his legs and ears folding back.

"That 'unsecure, undisclosed' location is my apartment… where he's living… with me."

And then the shouting erupted.


	15. Chapter 15

**Wow, sorry guys! I didn't mean for this chapter to take so long but here I am. Unfortunately, the main reason this fell by the wayside was that I got an idea to fix up a story that I had already written and it just became so, so important that I do that. It happens to me quite a bit - I just get an idea in my head for one of my other stories (or a new story) and it just becomes so important I can't not do it right then and there. But here, I have returned and I fear the monster I have created. Now I have to somehow get back to cute domestic fluff with Gadget and Infinite-geez, isn't this just what happens when you charge into something with _no plan whatsoever_? Although, I did get to write out a funny scene that's been in my head for ages. Please let me know how this turned out.**

* * *

"YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!" Vector roared and for the first time Gadget took note of how big and full of sharp white teeth his jaws were and privately prayed the crocodile wasn't going to come any closer.

"He's just been loose in the city?!" Amy squealed. "This whole time?!"

"I-in your apartment?!" Tails added at an equally high pitch. Gadget had expected him to be one of the furious ones so it threw him for a loop when Tails instead trembled so hard he looked like he might wet himself and his fingers twitched uselessly for all the horror written on his face. "I-I-I was just th-there this morning!"

"You have some explaining to do!" Knuckles snapped. He jabbed the wolf in the chest, lightly by his own standards but it was difficult to control his strength while he was this worked up, causing Gadget to fly off his feet and land on his behind.

"What's your game?" Vector interrogated, swooping in to lean snout-to-snout with Gadget. His tail thumped heavily, making Gadget gulp nervously. "Have you been secretly plotting against us?! I'll bet you were just biding your time with us, waiting until we were tired out from the war to snatch the remains of Dr Eggman's weaponry to use in your own dastardly world-domination plot! I said from the start that you couldn't be trusted, didn't I?"

Rouge snorted ungracefully as she burst into snickers. Espio sighed. "You said nothing of the sort," he corrected.

"Yeah, I don't remember that either," Charmy added.

"Don't say things like that!" Amy cried, voice high strained. "I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation for this!" She turned to Gadget with intensely imploring eyes. "Sonic wouldn't trust anybody shady, would he? So you're not a bad person, right?"

"Maybe we shouldn't put things in 'bad people' and 'good people' categories," Gadget muttered. "It's probably more of a grey area."

Vector's fist slammed on the central console. "You think we have the luxury to be talking about grey areas right now?"

"Oh, come on, you're overreacting," Rouge sighed loudly. "You think I would have let this go on if anyone was really in danger? You've got to give me more credit."

"Your job was to keep us informed!" Knuckles rounded on her.

"And I did."

"Badly!"

"This is my fault," muttered Tails in a wobbly voice. Amy leaped to start giving him fawning assurances that it wasn't his fault at all even as he continued: "I should have realised after the previous meeting that the containment was urgent but I was complacent. And now Omega is…"

"A victim of his own hubris," Shadow piped up, once again having the effect of making anybody who was still hissing or seething simmer down. "As usual. And as far as I can see this situation is straightforward so you're all bitching and shouting at each other for no reason, as usual. Infinite is powerless right now."

"But in the future he might—" Tails blurted.

"We're making a containment plan so it stays that way," Shadow interrupted him with a growl. "The dismal failures in leadership around here are pi—"

"It's not failure!" Knuckles protested. "We're just running a collaborative effort."

"That has resulted in no action against one of our key concerns so far." Shadow got off the wall, striding towards the middle of the room. "Tails, leave Omega be for the time being and get on with your specialised cell or it's my plan. Rouge, lay off the espionage and just do as you are. Espio, leave the footwork to your dumber colleagues and work on compiling records so Amy can do her damn duties."

Espio grumbled while Vector and Charmy whined in offense. Amy giggled and stuck her tongue at them but retracted it quickly when Shadow barked at her for being so childish.

"Who suddenly made you leader around here?" Knuckles fumed.

"If you'd rather a trial by fists I'd be happy to oblige," Shadow retorted, raising a fist to illustrate how serious he was. Knuckles raised both of his in response and shouted back, challenging him to take it outside. "Gladly, just make sure you know when you ought to quit because your strength in an asset in clearing out stray robots and clearing debris. And as for you…"

Gadget's tail tucked involuntarily. He tried to smile innocently but it was strained as Shadow stood nose to nose with him. He suddenly felt too hot to be wearing his own fur and his throat closed up under the bladed glare of Shadow's intimidating red eyes. "You're treading a thin line on my patience," Shadow threatened. "The only reason I haven't blasted your face off for what would basically be treason is because the worst didn't come to pass but don't get so cocky in the future."

"I'm not trying—" Gadget whimpered.

Shadow cut him off: "If you ever hide anything like that from me or make such egregious presumptions again, consider yourself a dead man walking."

He didn't wait for a response from Gadget before barking: "Everyone, get moving! Knuckles, with me!"

"What? Why?" Knuckles questioned, confused. First, he had been thrown for a loop by a sudden compliment and now this. Shadow's thoughts were obtuse at even the best of times.

Shadow glared at him disappointedly. "Is your memory that short? I'm going to show you who's boss!"

The meeting broke up immediately after that, Gadget could tell even though nobody had left immediately. Knuckles' roar of offense as he and Shadow left went ignored as the others turned to smaller groups to at least make a show of talking seriously about things. Gadget couldn't fault them. Shadow's frightening leadership made him anxious to be useful and refrain from messing up despite having no idea what he could possibly be messing up. The sudden release of the stress with the black hedgehog's departure made him feel ill but the fear of him didn't leave. He felt stuck now; Shadow was an ally but at the same time he was someone Gadget thought he needed to protect himself from. No, not himself, he realised belatedly, he needed to protect Infinite.

* * *

The next time Infinite awoke he felt sick like he'd stepped off a boat but the world was still swaying. Though the sheets were light his fur had become mussed and sweaty in his sleep, making him feel like he'd been wrapped in thick cotton. He tried to move but his limbs felt too heavy to lift and nausea churned in his gut. He groaned.

Someone to his right squeaked. There was a clatter of metal chair legs being pushed aside as they skittered further away from him. He opened his eyes and turned his head slowly. It took a while for his vision to clear completely and for several seconds all he could pick out was a large pink and red shape among the hospital whites and greens. The shape became a female hedgehog, one he didn't recognise but he assumed she must have been part of the resistance since she was here and Gadget wasn't. He swallowed hard, pretending that sad ache in his chest was just another wave of nausea. The female hedgehog peeked around the baby blue notebook she held up in front of her face like a shield and Infinite assumed sense must have finally caught up with her and she realised that there was no way he was going to move from his spot anytime soon. She let the notebook drop down to her chest but kept holding it protectively, taking one tentative step at a time back to her chair as she spoke to him:

"Are you… how are you feeling?"

She forced herself to smile and Infinite was somewhat impressed. It didn't look overly insincere but the panicky look in her wide-eyes made her overall expression seem like it had been moulded from plastic. He wanted to enjoy it but his entire brain felt like it was pulsing.

"Like shit," he croaked ineloquently.

"Yeah, Dr Hai said you might feel that way. Do you wanna throw up?"

He did but he didn't want to tell her that, so he just stared at the ceiling staying deliberately silent. The pink hedgehog made an offensive noise and he heard the chair creak as she sat down in it again.

"Fine, be like that," she said in a huffy voice. "There's a bucket beside your bed on your right if you feel like being sick, just so you know, it's not like I'm gonna help you since you don't want it."

Her cold words sounded desperate and pleading, like she wanted him to let her help him. Infinite fought the urge to look at her to let his incredulity be known but his brows and lips still twisted into the expression. Was she dumb?

She didn't press the issue further and the room quietened down to nothing but mechanical whirs from machines and air-conditioning and the scratch of her pen writing across the notebook pages. Occasionally she let out a thoughtful hum.

"They sure are taking a long time," she murmured softly. His ears twitched but he maintained the resolve. He'd stared at the ceiling for so long now he was beginning to see patterns in the white, or maybe that was just the fluorescent lights causing those blotches. He wouldn't take the bait, he wouldn't take the bait, he wouldn't take the bait—

"The nurses, by the way," the hedgehog snapped and he could tell by her voice alone that she was annoyed. Success. "I already pressed the button because they told me to do that if you woke up during my shift but they've all been really, really busy since Omega's attack. I mean, we don't blame you for it – at least, not anymore – so don't worry about that."

They had blamed him for it. Of course they did. That's what he was like, after all, wasn't it? He was a monster who didn't care about other people, a tyrannical beast so full of hubris that even at his weakest he would dare to provoke a highly advanced war robot outfitted with all the latest upgrades in death and destruction. It sounded just like him. Clever guys, that resistance crew. Infinite's lips twisted in fury and self-disgust but he maintained his silence.

The hedgehog girl let out another frustrated moan. Her pen scribbled furiously for a short time afterwards. A nurse came in, took his vitals and tried to get him to answer routine questions. Despite hearing them clearly, he did his best to let them wash over him and never responded. The nurse predictably gave up and turned to the hedgehog for a short conversation that he tuned out until the nurse hurried out of the room to stick to a busy schedule. It went back to semi-silence for a while after that, just the same as before – machines, air-conditioning, thoughtful hums. Then, out of the blue, the pink hedgehog popped a question:

"What do you think about Maurice as a name for a first-born son?"

This time Infinite did turn his head look at her with his incredulous expression. How was he supposed to answer such a random question? What was she even talking about?

However, she didn't require his input to continue talking, his body taking the role of a sounding board for her words to bounce straight back to her. She wasn't even looking at him, her eyes were tilted up to stare vacantly at a random corner of the room. "Hmm, maybe not. It doesn't have a very strong sound to it. It might suit the third-born at best."

She looked down into the pages of her book and continued to write. "What about Olgilvie?"

"No heckin' way."

Her gaze whipped to him in surprise as though she'd forgotten he was there. Silence broken, he had no choice but to keep on. Well, technically he did have a choice but here he had his first chance to prove that maybe he wasn't a monster after all.

"Any kid with that name is going to grow up thinking he's been cursed."

She huffed, glaring at him. "Oh, so you can hear me, huh?"

"I can. And I can also hear that 'Olgilvie' is the worst name idea ever."

"I'm just trying to think of a unique name!"

"There's a fine line between unique and asinine."

The pink hedgehog crossed her arms. "Well, then, what do you suggest would be a good name for a first-born son? It has to be something special, so I won't settle for something like 'Tom' or 'James'."

He snorted in amusement but decided he would humour her. "What about 'Finn'?"

"'Finn', huh…" she muttered, putting a finger to her cheek. "That might not be so bad—hey! Did you only suggest that because it's a part of your name? In- _FINN_ -ite?"

"No," he replied, and the quietness of his voice gave her pause.

Infinite looked up at the ceiling again. He'd run his mouth a bit too quickly just then and without realising it he'd referred back to his past that he never wanted to think about. Finn was a boy he once knew back in his hometown, a fair-furred child who Infinite remembered having always been small for his age. The other town children used to call him Finn the Finder for his keen senses of smell and sight and his natural aptitude for logic that made him the best at finding things.

"Is it your real name?" the pink hedgehog asked because apparently, she could never just leave well enough alone.

He didn't choke back the laugh that barked from his throat. "As if you would be so privileged."

It would have been just what she was looking for though – something thoughtful and unique. From a family that had only produced daughters until he came along, it was expected that his parents had a name planned out for him for years. And they let him have it, even though he had been a disappointment from day one.

Someone opened the door and knocked on the side of the doorframe, mostly as a way of announcing themselves since they'd clearly already let themselves in. The sound felt like relief to the jackal. It interrupted the flow of this conversation, effectively ending it right when he was keen to drop it. He wondered who had arrived, thinking at first of all the resistance members he knew the faces of on the assumption that the arrival was here to relieve the hedgehog of the aforementioned 'shift' duty.

"Okay, let's see what we've got here…" they said. Infinite's ears pricked. He knew that voice.

"I didn't expect you to be available so soon, Dr Hai," the pink hedgehog remarked, confirming his suspicion. Then she gasped. "It's not because Shadow's bullying you, is it? He's been really mean ever since he took charge."

The human doctor chuckled. "No, you just caught me with the news at a good time, is all."

She suddenly appeared standing over Infinite and looking down at him, tucking her hair behind her ears so it wouldn't fall in front of her vision. "You look very alert; it's good to see. But I'm still going to need to do a few tests and ask a few questions, if you don't mind."

Infinite shot a pointed glare at the pink hedgehog. Simone followed his gaze to her and smiled apologetically. "Would you mind stepping outside, Miss Rose? Even if you are here as security, it's not appropriate to have a third person listen in to medical conversations without the patient's consent."

"Oh, okay then," Miss Rose the Hedgehog said, "I'll just be right outside that door. Yell out if you want me back for anything."

She left the room, looking back in and giving Infinite a meaningful look before she shut the door. Infinite jerked his chin back in affront at her expression – another dual emotional state that indicated both that she meant harm if it was required of her but that she pitied him for being the target of that harm. She had looked at him like he was weak… well, he supposed he was.

Simone sighed and turned back to him. "Well, let's get started."

At her deflated tone Infinite wanted to sink into his sheets and he hated it. Every second of her disappointment made him feel like shit and he hated it. He _hated_ it.

* * *

 **Please review, give me strength for what's to come.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Me at myself: exCUSE ME, WHY HAVE YOU NOT UPDATED SINCE JULY?!**

 **Also probably what's on your mind too and the sad thing is, I have no explanation. Okay, that's a lie, I do but it feels lame in my head. The big project thing that held up my last chapter turned out to be way bigger than I thought it was and I have no idea how I churned out that monster in the first place. I still haven't finished what I set out to do. I also just haven't written in a very long time. Like, anything. Nothing has come out of me for months even though I have so many good ideas for things that could come out of my head. Hopefully, I can manage to write regularly until the end of the year. (crap, there's less than 3 weeks left of 2018).**

* * *

Simone reached for the clipboard at the end of his bed and then began with an examination of some sort. He honestly wasn't sure what she was checking, just that she was pressing with a delicate balance of gentleness and firmness against the sides of his neck, his collar, and in his armpits. Then she moved with robotic habit to checking his chest, taking her stethoscope off her shoulders and putting the buds in her ears. She pulled the sheets down and carefully pressed it against his torso, giving extended attention to the area around his heart. Her face pinched in concentration but her guard was otherwise down and Infinite stared at her face, seeing the exhaustion in her sallow cheeks and dark, wrinkly eyebags. Too tired to make small talk or multi-task, he presumed but he was grateful that speaking wouldn't be required of him. He felt exhausted too just from that little bit of thinking and remembering he'd done in front of Miss Rose. Simone wordlessly took his temperature and yawned while taking his blood pressure. As much as he didn't want to talk the extended quiet unnerved him, allowing the bundles of emotions in him to ricochet around his head busily until he could barely take it anymore. He swallowed as she packed up the blood pressure machine.

"You can lay into me, if you want," he muttered.

Simone looked at him confusedly. "What do you mean?"

"I'm not taking care of myself. I'm doing a shit job at getting my life back together and now I'm back here with all the same problems."

"What?" Simone blinked, taking a while to process those words. "No! You're not doing a 'shit job', you were doing excellently as far as I could tell."

"Right…" Infinite murmured with flat disbelief.

"No, really! From what I saw of the notes that your nurse managed to take before the incident, you've been taking your recovery very seriously. Your wound looked like it had been healing well up until the point that it must have tore open during the incident and a post-op blood test showed no evidence of infection, or inflammation above expected levels. You were clearly keeping up a regular wound care and medication regime."

Infinite snorted and went back to staring at the ceiling silently. Simone turned over one of the pages on the clipboard to add more notes to his file.

"The only reason…" Infinite began. Simone paused her writing. He couldn't see (or rather, wouldn't look) but he could imagine her staring at him, pen poised above the page in wait for him to continue. "The only reason I did it was because of Gadget's nagging."

It was quiet while Simone waited to see if Infinite would speak up again. When he didn't, she responded: "That's not a bad thing. In my professional opinion, I don't think anybody really recovers on their own. It takes a lot of time and following the strict instructions is quite difficult for most people. Even those who don't have live-in carers have people around them to support them and assist with recovery."

"He doesn't get anything out of helping me," Infinite said, bristling at the thought of Gadget being his 'carer'.

"Perhaps not but you don't need to get anything out of it when you care about someone a lot. He seems to care about you a lot."

"Why would he do something dumb like that?"

"I don't know," she said, putting the clipboard in her lap and folding her arms over it. "You'd have to ask him yourself. All I can really say is that I think you're very lucky to have him."

She smiled at him. Infinite nearly opened his mouth to refute that in no uncertain terms but aborted the process when he realised that she was right. He'd probably be dead by now if it wasn't for Gadget. While he did still have some vanity, enough to believe that he _may_ have survived his injuries and gotten by with his heart problems, at the very least he needed someone in his corner to protect him from the wrath of the resistance. In particular, one black hedgehog.

"In the meantime," Simone continued, looking down at her notes again, "your body is physically recovering as well as it possibly can. I'm getting very concerned, though, since this is your third major operation that had to be done under general anaesthetic in the past two months and the cumulative effects are taking their toll. Even after the transfusions, your blood pressure is so low that I'm not recommending that you be discharged yet and when it gets back up to a safe level I don't recommend discharging you unless you're being discharged into someone's care."

"No problems there," Infinite grumbled. "I've got a literal army keeping their eyes on me."

Simone shook her head. "In your case, I was thinking of someone specific."

Infinite turned his head and they engaged in a short stare-off. He frowned intensely at her but she didn't look cheeky for how brazen that remark at been, only tired. She broke eye-contact first, eschewing a childish standoff to put her pen in her lab coat pocket.

"You'll need to keep up with the anti-coagulant since your vena cava tear still hasn't completely healed but I want you off the beta-blockers until further notice. Other than that, there's nothing I would recommend that I haven't already recommended. Just keep doing as you have been."

She stood up and hung the clipboard with his file over the end bedrail again. "You're in relatively good shape right now, so I'll put it on your record that the kitchen can send you liquid foods. It's good to get back into the habit of eating since you've only had nutrients injected intravenously for the past couple of days but you don't have to eat what you don't feel up to eating. I'll come back and check on you when I'm next available. 'Til then…"

Simone turned to leave after that vague goodbye but when she opened the door the pink hedgehog from earlier came tumbling in, blocking her way. Amy Rose looked up at the doctor and chuckled sheepishly, flustered at being caught attempting to eavesdrop through the door. With no dignity whatsoever, she sat up to scoot out of the way and let Simone past awkwardly before she stood up, folding her hands in front of her in embarrassment. As Simone's footsteps disappeared down the hall she turned to Infinite.

"Sooo…. How did it go?" she asked.

Infinite's eyelids lowered. Tolerating her felt exhausting to him so he didn't grace her with a response, choosing instead to lie back and examine the ceiling again.

* * *

Ten days he stayed in hospital. Ten days of the hospital routine, barely palatable food and the rotating roster of colourful resistance members keeping vigil at his bedside with varying degrees of diligence. Despite his initial displeasure at the pink hedgehog's company ("Miss Rose!?" she had tittered and blushed when he had called her by the only name he knew for her. "I had no idea you were such a gentleman. But you can just call me Amy."), Amy Rose was one of the members he got along better with. She was easy and flippant in her manner, lacked the venom present in most of his interactions with her colleagues and she had a wide-open weak spot in the form of a certain blue hedgehog that he could exploit should their amity ever breakdown. Just one thing stood between him and his desire to project any goodwill towards her and that was how, next to Gadget, she seemed to care the most about his wellbeing.

Whereas most of the resistance seemed to wish he would stay immobile in a hospital bed, Amy kept asking how he was, commenting on the readings on the equipment as if she knew what they meant, and brought him things such as the flowers cluttering his bedside table in paper cups from the cafeteria that she had found growing through the concrete all around the ruined city. It threw him every single time. He couldn't shake the thought that he didn't deserve any of it and therefore shouldn't allow himself to enjoy her kindness. So when ten days had passed and Simone told him that she was finally happy to discharge him he practically threw himself to his feet. Or he would have, if his legs weren't suddenly so weak. Simone laughed a little bit less than politely.

"You've been in bed so long that your muscles have atrophied a bit," she explained. "I'll ask someone to bring a wheelchair up."

"You will do no such thing," Infinite growled from his undignified place on the floor.

"We'll see how you go, then. It's a good idea for you to get back on your feet as quickly as possible, even light and leisurely walking at this stage will help build back your strength."

"Thanks for letting me know," Infinite deadpanned sarcastically, pushing himself up on shaky arms. He reached for the side of the bed to crawl his way back up to standing. "Now, where do I sign to get out of here?"

"Ultimately, whether you get discharged or not is your own choice but I did tell you that I would not recommend leaving the hospital without a guarantee that you would have someone to take care of you and that condition still stands." Infinite rolled his eyes, muttering curses under his breath. Simone returned it with an eyeroll of her own, hers rather more amused. "Luckily for you, the resistance has someone ready to take you. He's in the waiting area for the ward at the moment."

Infinite paused in his focus on trying to walk his way to the end of the bed with his hands and elbows as much as his feet and turned to look at her quizzically. "How did he get here so fast?"

Simone smirked. "I think I know you well enough by now. I figured you'd try to do the same sort of runner you attempted last time, so I made sure your escort was here before I discharged you. Do you think you can make it down the hall?"

Infinite narrowed his eyes at her. He stepped back from the bed as far as his arms would allow him, then carefully took each hand off the mattress one after the other. When he didn't fall immediately, he allowed himself a triumphant smirk and then tried to take one wobbly step towards the door. His knees buckled.

To Simone's credit, she didn't laugh that time but her smile turned more pitying. "Shall we try crutches, then?"


End file.
